ELEPHANT HUNTING 307 



moment the first one rose again, and I fired both barrels 

 into its head, bringing it once more to the ground. Once 

 again it rose an elephant's brain is not an easy mark to 

 hit under such conditions but as it moved slowly off, 

 half stunned, I snatched the little Springfield rifle, and 

 this time shot true, sending the bullet into its brain. As it 

 fell I took another shot at the wounded elephant, now dis- 

 appearing in the forest, but without effect. 



On walking up to our prize it proved to be not a cow, 

 but a good-sized adult (but not old) herd bull, with thick, 

 short tusks, weighing about forty pounds apiece. Ordi- 

 narily, of course, a bull, and not a cow, is what one desires, 

 although on this occasion I needed a cow to complete the 

 group for the National Museum. However, Heller and 

 Cuninghame spent the next few days in preserving the skin, 

 which I afterward gave to the University of California; and 

 I was too much pleased with our luck to feel inclined to 

 grumble. We were back in camp five hours after leaving 

 it. Our gun-bearers usually felt it incumbent on them to 

 keep a dignified bearing while in our company. But the 

 death of an elephant is always a great event; and one of 

 the gun-bearers, as they walked ahead of us campward, 

 soon began to improvise a song, reciting the success of 

 the hunt, the death of the elephant, and the power of 

 the rifles; and gradually, as they got farther ahead, the 

 more light-hearted among them began to give way to 

 their spirits and they came into camp frolicking, gambol- 

 ling, and dancing as if they were still the naked savages 

 that they had been before they became the white man's 

 followers. 



Two days later Kermit got his bull. He and Tarlton 

 had camped about ten miles cff in a magnificent forest, 

 and late the first afternoon received news that a herd of ele- 

 phants was in the neighborhood. They were off by dawn, 

 and in a few hours came on the herd. It consisted chiefly 

 of cows and calves, but there was one big master bull, with 

 fair tusks. It was open forest with long grass. By careful 



