298 WALK HOME. 



good-sized bull, that is, about ten feet high, and his 

 tusks, though thin, were long and perfect. He had a 

 large gangrenous sore in his side, covering a space of 

 nearly a foot in diameter, and to this cause I attribute 

 the fact of his beuig very thin. This most probably 

 was the effect of an encounter with some old bulf 

 buffalo, or perhaps with one of the same family as 

 himself. 



Little time was lost now, as our camp still lay a 

 long way from us. About a mile from where I killed 

 the last victim, and while walking down wind, a 

 large herd of elephants, informed by the tainted 

 breezes of our approach, bolted at a most tremendous 

 pace. I ran some distance after them, in the hope they 

 might stop, but could not overtake them. 



The remainder of the walk home was rough and 

 dark, and it was a quarter past twelve o'clock when 

 we sighted the camp fires, after a long and hard but 

 successful day of twenty-one hours. 



As I sat smoking over my fire after dinner I could 

 not help thinking that Chippootoola was a decidedly 

 useful man. I had killed two good bull elephants, 

 which he by some means or other had induced to 

 charge him — always bringing them in my way ! I had 

 also a vision before my eyes of two magnificent n'goma 

 (koodoo) heads which I had seen when following up 

 the first herd of elephants, and which at any other 

 time would have had my best attention. Subsequently, 

 when on the track of the same herd, and about a mile 

 from where I had seen the koodoos, an old sow with 

 seven young ones stood in my way, forbidding me, by 

 a series of angry grunts, to advance another yard ; 



