CHAP. iv. ELEPHANT. 193 



hurry to go away ; and emboldened by the darkness and 

 the badness of the night, kept marching round us, growl- 

 ing and roaring ; once, when I threw a flaming brand at 

 them, coming so close that we took up our guns. For- 

 tunately, as I believe no gun except my own would have 

 gone off, they confined themselves to this ; but between 

 them and the wind and rain we passed a nearly sleepless 

 night, and looked miserable enough as we got up at 

 dawn and resumed the spoor, close to which we had 

 slept. 



The rain, which continued, had not obliterated it, as the 

 ground had been soft when the animal passed and it had 

 received a couple of days' baking since, but we rather feared 

 that it would do so, and therefore hurried on. Towards 

 noon, however, it partially cleared, and when we caught 

 sight of the Sutu the rain had ceased. The elephant all 

 this time had kept steadily on, hardly pausing to strip a 

 tempting tree or two of their branches as it passed, but 

 before reaching the river it had entered a thorn thicket, 

 and seemed to have stood about and fed, as many of the 

 trees were stripped, and several of the smaller rooted up. 



We reached the edge of the reeds late in the after- 

 noon, and found that, as we had expected, he had gone 

 into them ; so, time being of the greatest value, I decided 

 to divide our forces, and, late as it was, to follow him up at 

 once. One hunter and a carrier was despatched to hunt 

 for food, as, whether they disturbed the elephant or not, 

 we could not go much further without eating ; one I sent 

 up outside the reeds to search for any spoor that might 

 indicate that it had left them, while I undertook the task 

 of following it through the reeds. The spoor was now, 



N 



