- Elephant-Hunting 



It turned out that a small herd to which this elephant 

 belonged had come down to the now sodden velt, and 

 having got wind of my people had come upon the 

 advanced guard of the long-drawn-out caravan. Thus 

 it happened that by a most curious chance I came upon 

 the bull in a spot where I should never have expected 

 to find an elephant at that time of year. 



Less perilous perhaps, yet full of excitement in its 

 own way, was a hunt in the course of which I came upon 

 a herd in a thicket in a ravine on the side of the Ngaptu 

 Mountain. I had been going after elephants for weeks on 

 the north side of the mountain fruitlessly. One day I had 

 been unable to resist the temptation of shooting a rare 

 kind of thrush (Turdus decksui} on the top of the 

 mountain. The noise of my shot resounding through the 

 ravine was answered almost at once by the loud trumpeting 

 of an elephant. 



On another day I was making a nine-hours' march 

 round one part of the mountain, and although I was 

 suffering at the time rather badly from dysentery, I pressed 

 forward to the place which, as I had found out accidentally, 

 the elephants frequented. I thought it very doubtful 

 whether they were still to be found there, but nowadays 

 one must lose no chance of any kind of getting at 

 elephants in those regions, even when journeys of days 

 are entailed. A more or less steady wind enabled me 

 to approach the herd, and at last I found myself only 

 a few paces away from two fairly large bulls. They 

 were standing, however, in such an unfavourable position 

 that I could not make up my mind to shoot. After 



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