558 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



anas lay, and at first led me through very bad wait-a-bit 

 thorn cover, which once or twice nearly swept me out of the 

 saddle. Presently he inclined to the west, and got into 

 better country; I then rode close up to him, and bowled 

 him over with four shots. 



With one more glimpse of the cool extravagance charac- 

 teristic of the Professional Hunter, and of which Cummings 

 has prided himself upon giving us so many specimens, we 

 take our leave of elephant hunting in South Africa. The 

 following is most refreshing. 



On the 31st I held south-east in quest of elephants, with a 

 large party of the natives. Our course lay through an open 

 part of the forest, where I beheld a troop of springboks and 

 two ostriches, the first I had seen for a long time. We held 

 for Towannie, a strong fountain in the gravelly bed of a 

 periodical river : here two herds of cow elephants had drunk 

 on the preceding evening, but I declined to follow them ; and 

 presently, at a muddy fountain a little in advance, we took 

 up the spoor of an enormous bull, which had wallowed in the 

 mud, and then plastered the sides of several of the adjacent 

 veteran-looking trees. We followed the spoor through level 

 forest in an easterly direction, when the leading party overran 

 the spoor, and casts were made for its recovery. Presently 

 I detected an excited native beckoning violently a little to my 

 left, and, cantering up to him, he said that he had seen the 

 elephant. He led me through the forest a few hundred yards, 

 when, clearing a wait-a-bit, I came full in view of the tallest 

 and largest bull elephant I had ever seen. He stood broadside 

 to me, at upward of one hundred yards, and his attention at 

 the moment was occupied with the dogs, which, unaware of 

 his proximity, were rushing past him, while the old fellow 

 seemed to gaze at their unwonted appearance with surprise. 



Halting my horse, I fired at his shoulder, and secured him 

 with a single shot. The ball caught him high upon the 

 shoulder-blade, rendering him instantly dead lame ; and 



