With Flashlight and Rifle <+> 



trees and bushes quivering this way and that. It was 

 heart-breaking ! One instant sooner and both elephants 

 would have been lying dead in the mud. Animals 

 with tusks weighing two hundred pounds ! Elephants 

 such as have hardly fallen to any European hunter in the 

 whole length and breadth of Africa ! 



The wind now going down, and the trees ceasing to 

 quiver, I slid down the ravine and made my way up the 

 opposite slope, all covered with mud and slime from the 

 branches through which the elephants had forced their 

 way, and got up on the top just as they entered the 

 thicket, through which they would probably continue their 

 flio-ht tor some hours. 



o 



This supposition was only too well founded, as I 

 discovered after an indescribably long pursuit without 

 results. Hardly ever in all my life had I been so covered 

 in slime and so unrecognisable as after this incident. 

 And the slime smelt of elephant to an unimaginable 

 degree ! 



Forcing my way along in the undergrowth, with my 

 arms in front of me to protect my face, 1 got into such 

 a condition of dirt and breathlessness and utter disgust 

 over my failure as I had only once in my life experienced 

 before. That was at Minister, in the "Old Westphalian " 

 steeplechase that most delightful of all German steeple- 

 chases as they used to be run over the old difficult course, 

 and when knee-deep in mud I had almost won, yet lost ! 



I leave it to the reader to imagine my feelings. For 

 weeks I had been after these elephants in the hope of 

 photographing them. Then came this long pursuit which 



198 



