i68 TO LAKE ALBERT EDWARD 



bull apart from the rest. He was standing absolutely 

 motionless under a tree facing towards me, and 

 he looked exactly like a dark shadow. In spite 

 of the thorns, with which that tree was profusely 

 and most painfully armed, I stayed in it for an 

 hour or more, fascinated by one of the most 

 interesting sights it is possible to imagine — a 

 veritable prehistoric peep. 



In this connexion I might record another but less 

 pleasant interview which we had with elephants. 

 We were staying for a day or two in a Congo post, 

 the name of which need not, for obvious reasons, 

 be mentioned, when a herd of elephants was 

 reported to be close by. I went off at once to see 

 them, accompanied by the Belgian officer in charge 

 of the post, who took with him a rifle ' in case of 

 accidents' (he said). No sooner had we come 

 within sight of them than he opened fire on the herd, 

 and blazed away quite indiscriminately at the un- 

 fortunate beasts. There must have been more than 

 fifty of them, and between a mad European firing at 

 them on one side, and on the other a crowd of 

 natives who were yelling at them and trying to drive 

 them away from their plantations, the elephants 

 became perfectly bewildered, and stampeded back- 

 wards and forwards between the two lines of attack. 

 How many of them were wounded it would be 

 impossible to say : I saw three being helped to 

 escape by their companions, who closed round them, 

 and one was left dead on the battlefield, when the 



