ELEPHANT SHOOTING 239 



close by, with orders to come down behind the elephants 

 so as to prevent their turning. This done he galloped 

 up the slope, taking care to keep well above the herd. 



By this time the elephants had reached the river 

 bank, and at sight of the grey horse they stopped sus- 

 piciously and stood closer together. While they were 

 standing thus the men came down from the slopes and 

 formed a long line, surrounding them on that side. The 

 elephants remained quiet, though they still nicked their 

 ears, with the boats in front and the river behind them. 

 Here the stream was broken, about a hundred yards from 

 the shore, by an island, with a steep bank of hard earth. 

 Before a shot could be fired they had swum across and 

 gained the island, but then their progress was stopped. 

 The banks were fully six feet high, and the river was too 

 deep below to give them a footing. The only thing they 

 could do was to pull down the bank with their trunks and 

 tusks, so as to form a slope for them to pass up, and they 

 at once set about it. 



Hard as the whole eleven worked, it took some time ; 

 and Baker, standing on the shore, watched closely for the 

 moment when one of them should turn round, for it was 

 difficult to shoot with any certainty from such a distance. 

 However, he did fire a few bullets in among them, which, 

 though they did no real damage, bothered the elephants a 

 good deal, and caused them, in their confusion, to tumble 

 over each other. But by this time part of the bank had 

 given way under their hard labour, and they were enabled 

 to get some sort of footing above the water, so that more 

 of their bodies were exposed to view. At last, with a 

 prodigious amount of tumbling and struggling, one large 

 animal reared itself half out of the river, and received a 

 ball behind its shoulder. It fell over into the stream, 

 which swept it quite near to where Baker was standing, 

 so that it was easy to put a ball right into the brain. 



When his rifle was loaded for the second shot an 

 elephant had scrambled right to the top of the bank, and 



