With Flashlight and Rifle -* 



that elephants, especially when they have been excited, 

 are incited to attack by the sight of a fire. 



I myself had in mind a case of this kind. A number 

 of large elephants had made for a camp-fire, and for 

 nearly a quarter of an hour trampled over it, and over 

 everything they found near it belonging to the black 

 hunters. The six men who were encamped beside it 

 found safety in flight. 



Naturally we spent some minutes of keen anxiety 

 as the elephants passed anxiety due in large measure 

 to the strange circumstance that the elephants should 

 have chosen a route so near our camp. But the danger 

 passed, and the silent, illimitable velt lay steeped in 

 the moonlight. I took the first hours of the watch, 

 and then, after my men had rested, took my turn of 

 sleep. When I woke up suddenly at dawn, I found the 

 camp-fire almost extinguished and the watch snoring ; 

 it was their snoring that had awakened me. So com- 

 pletely do the results of extreme physical exertion prevail 

 over all thought or fear of wild animals ! 



Now came a very difficult and wearying seven-hours' 

 march over broken ground full of holes made by rodents, 

 to our distant camp, in scorching sunlight. I am doubtful 

 whether we should ever have reached it but for our 

 good fortune in coming upon some water after long digging 

 in a dried-up river-bed. It is not easy to give an idea 

 of the effect such experiences have upon the men who 

 live through them. 



Arrived safely in camp, I despatched some men next 

 day to bring back the teeth of both the cow elephants last 



184 



