CHAP. iv. ELEPHANT. 195 



they had not been able to find their way back, that the 

 others returned, bringing, to our great satisfaction, an 

 impalla doe with them. I should be sorry now to say 

 what we did, or what we did not eat that night, though 

 I don't think there was much of the impalla left after 

 breakfast next day, except two or three junks of roasted 

 meat which the carriers took with them. So much did 

 we enjoy our dinner that little attention was paid to the 

 rain, which had recommenced ; and even when we lay 

 down, I personally, and I believe all of us, slept so soundly 

 that it was not until morning that we awoke shivering to 

 find ourselves lying in pools of water. Fortunately it was 

 daybreak, and though it was still raining it looked more 

 like clearing than it had done for some days, and by the 

 time we had crossed the river and reached the reeds 

 where I had left the track in the evening the sun was 

 shining, and a white mist was rising which concealed the 

 whole of the river bottom. 



Our first object was to ascertain whether the elephant 

 was still in these reeds, and to make sure of this we 

 skirted outside them, carefully examining the ground, lest 

 the rain should conceal the marks. About half way down 

 we found them leading out, their faintness indicating that 

 he had passed early in the night, but as he might have 

 returned, we kept on to where a precipice rising out of 

 the river bounded the reeds, and seeing no further traces, 

 we returned and followed him, by no means pleased at his 

 having left the cover where we had made so sure of find- 

 ing him. There were two causes assignable for his having 

 done so : either he had only been resting on his way to the 

 Pongolo, for there was nothing now to hold him before we 



