40 SPORT IN THE EASTERN SUDAN 



any case make very characteristic trophies. When 

 I was sitting up for lions at Gira on the Settit, a 

 large herd of elephants used invariably to cross the 

 river within 100 yards of my machan soon after 

 dark, and I now regret that I did not make use of 

 the moon to survey this wonderful sight through 

 a pair of field-glasses, which show distant objects 

 with remarkable clearness by moonlight. But I 

 made certain of shooting elephants on the Rahad, 

 Binder, or Blue Nile later on, and wasted an entire 

 week over lions that never appeared, whilst I let pass 

 chances of shooting elephants, from a position of 

 tolerable security, which may never recur. Of the 

 sport itself I can only speak from hearsay, except 

 that on the Settit River, from Gira upwards, scarcely 

 a day passed without my seeing fresh tracks of large 

 elephants, many of which certainly did not retire 

 for more than a mile from the river for their midday 

 siesta. In the Eastern Sudan I believe that the 

 elephant is almost invariably shot either by moon- 

 light when drinking, or by following up his tracks 

 from the drinking-places by daylight. The head-shot 

 is the one usually taken, and I have been told that 

 the impact of a solid bullet from a heavy cordite 

 rifle will often stun and floor an elephant without 

 the brain being actually pierced. Such an elephant 

 is certain to regain his feet in the course of a minute 

 or two, so that I presume that it would be good 



