Another Herd. 



209 



another moment he regained his legs and stood with his 

 broadside exposed to us, stunned with the heavy ball in 

 his head. Taking a steady shot at his shoulder, I gave 

 him a second dose of the four-ounce : he reeled to and 

 fro and staggered into the jungle. I dared not follow 

 him in my crippled state, and we returned to the horses ; 

 but the next day he was found dead by the natives. 



I much feared that the shot fired might have dis- 

 turbed the herd of elephants, as they were reported to 

 be not far distant ; this, however, proved not to be the 

 case, as we met the watchers about a mile farther on, 

 who reported the herd to be perfectly undisturbed, but 

 located in the everlasting lemon grass. At this time 

 the greater portion of the Park was a mass of this 

 abominable grass, and there was no chance of getting 

 the elephants in any other position, this serving them at 

 the same time for both food and shelter. How they 

 can eat it is a puzzle : it is as sharp as a knife, and as 

 coarse as a file, with a flavor of the most pungent 

 lemon peel. 



We shortly arrived at the spot in which the herd was 

 concealed ; it was a gentle slope covered with dense 

 lemon grass, terminated by a jungle. We could just 

 distinguish the tops of the elephants' heads in several 

 places, and, having dismounted, we carefully entered 

 the grass and crept toward the nearest elephants. The 

 herd was much scattered, but there were five elephants 

 close to each other, and we made toward these, Banda 

 leading the way. My only chance of making a bag 

 lay in the first onset, I therefore cautioned Wallace to 

 have the spare guns handed with extra diligence, and 

 we crept up to our game. There were two elephants 

 facing us, but. we stalked them so carefully through the 

 18* 



