302 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



Home came to our camp with four of his black scouts, 

 who reported that three elephants were in a patch of thick 

 jungle beside the shambas, not three miles away. Home 

 said that the elephants were cows, that they had been in 

 the neighborhood some days, devastating the shambas, 

 and were bold and fierce, having charged some men who 

 sought to drive them away from the cultivated fields; it is 

 curious to see how little heed these elephants pay to the 

 natives. I wished a cow for the museum, and also another 

 bull. So off we started at once, Kermit carrying his camera. 

 I slipped on my rubber-soled shoes, and had my gun- 

 bearers accompany me barefooted, with the Holland and 

 the Springfield rifles. We followed foot-paths among the 

 fields until we reached the edge of the jungle in which the 

 elephants stood. 



This jungle lay beside the forest, and at this point 

 separated it from the fields. It consisted of a mass of rank- 

 growing bushes, allied to the cotton-plant, ten or twelve 

 feet high, with only here and there a tree. It was not good 

 ground in which to hunt elephant, for the tangle was prac- 

 tically impenetrable to a hunter save along the elephant 

 trails, whereas the elephants themselves could move in 

 any direction at will, with no more difficulty than a man 

 would have in a hay-field. The bushes in most places rose 

 just above their backs, so that they were completely hid 

 from the hunter even a few feet away. Yet the cover 

 afforded no shade to the mighty beasts, and it seemed 

 strange that elephants should stand in it at mid-day with 

 the sun out. There they were, however, for, looking cau- 

 tiously into the cover from behind the bushes on a slight 

 hill-crest quarter of a mile off, we could just make out a 

 huge ear now and then as it lazily flapped. 



On account of the wind we had to go well to one side 

 before entering the jungle. Then in we went in single 

 file, Cuninghame and Tarlton leading > with a couple of our 

 naked guides. The latter showed no great desire to get too 

 close, explaining that the elephants were "very fierce." 



