ELEPHANTS 



evidently been to water during the night. About five 

 natives had followed me, all armed, much to my discom- 

 fort of mind, with old " gas-pipes," and after inspecting 

 the track we entered the forest. A very short track 

 brought us within sound -of our quarry, and, making my 

 way cautiously forward, I soon saw him standing in a tiny 

 open patch of grass, in the midst of the forest, not more 

 than 20 yards in diameter. I sat down at the edge of 

 this to cool and steady myself a bit, and to have a good 

 look at my first wild elephant. I was very much im- 

 pressed. His huge bulk, flapping ears, and restless move- 

 ments, as he flicked at flies with a bit of broken branch, 

 or scratched one leg against another, combined to make 

 a picture, framed in a background of fine forest, impressive 

 in the extreme, especially to a novice like myself. 



He was standing, heading away from me, showing 

 about quarter face left side, and I was very uncertain about 

 the spot to aim at, so decided to try for the heart. I 

 calculated the position as well as I knew how and let 

 drive, when, to my horror and disgust, such an explosion 

 went off behind me as nearly lifted my hat off my head 

 every one of those infernal men had let off his old " gas- 

 pipe " at the miserable elephant, the moment after ! 

 Away went the elephant like a tornado, crash, smash, 

 through everything, and away I tore after it, groaning at 

 every step, for the boil on my ankle was giving me 

 "beans." After a mile of this I was utterly done, and 

 so sent on two of the men, whilst I sat down to rest. 

 They came back in about an hour reporting the elephant 

 to be still going, which I had reason to think afterwards 

 was not true, so I limped back to camp. The next day 

 I sent men out to look for it again as I could not put 

 foot to the ground, and they returned reporting no find, 



95 



