To Lake Albert Edward 187 



shots hurriedly discharged at the hindmost animal caused it to 

 circle about twice, but were not enough to upset it ; then it joined 

 the troop and fled with them. We followed at the double as far 

 as a terrace-shaped declivity, where the steppe ended at the river, 

 whose bank was overgrown with dense reed and swamp grass. 

 Here we came upon the troop again, which had v/aded into the 

 river, but apparently could not make up its mind to cross it. 



The animal, which had previously been wounded, was unable 

 to follow with the troop, and as Veriter, who had kept his wind 

 best, came up and gave him another bullet through the head, it 

 collapsed and lay as if dead. A carrier rushed up overjoyed, 

 and with one cut divided the tail from the body. The hairs of 

 the tail of an elephant are much prized by the natives ; ornaments 

 of all sorts, bracelets, neck adornments, etc., are fashioned from 

 them. At the moment, however, that the carrier flourished the 

 severed trophy in the air the supposed dead elephant furiously 

 rose up and perceived his assailant. I arrived just in time to 

 obtain a photographic picture of this indescribably comical scene, 

 this abrupt transformation of the joy of victory into deadly 

 fear. Whilst the carriers scurried away in all directions, 

 Veriter stood in perplexity before his opponent, searching all his 

 pockets in vain for cartridges, with which he had thoughtlessly 

 provided himself too sparsely. But the elephant was so injured 

 that no further danger was to be apprehended from him, and on 

 receiving a further shot from my rifle in the shoulder he rolled 

 slowly over on to his side and expired. 



I then follow^ed up the remainder of the herd, and soon caught 

 sight of a fine bull, who had already received a few bullets from 

 me, standing alone and badly hurt at the edge of a small island 

 in the river. First I took a couple of snapshots with my hand 

 camera at about 120 metres' distance, and then I fired at him 

 again. The elephant first advanced a few steps up on to the 

 island, and then proceeded slowly through the tall reed-grass 

 invisible to me, and through the stream on to the bank, where, 

 after passing through some more grass, he finally reappeared at 

 a considerable distance away. As a broad swamp now separated 



