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AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



and faced toward us when only twenty-five yards distant, an 

 unwounded cow beginning to advance with her great ears 

 cocked at right angles to her head; and Tarlton called 

 "Look out; they are coming for us." At such a distance a 

 charge from half a dozen elephant is a serious thing; I put 

 a bullet into the forehead of the advancing cow, causing her 



to lurch heavily 

 forward to her 

 knees; and then 

 we all fired. The 

 heavy rifles were 

 too much even for 

 such big beasts, 

 and round they 

 spun and rushed 

 off. As they turned 

 I dropped the sec- 

 ond cow I had 

 wounded with a 

 shot in the brain, 

 and the cow that 

 had started to 

 charge also fell, 

 though it needed 

 two or three more 

 shots to keep it 

 down as it strug- 

 gled to rise. The 

 cow at which I had first fired kept on with the rest of the 

 herd, but fell dead before going a hundred yards. After we 

 had turned the herd Kermit with his Winchester killed a 

 bull calf, necessary to complete the museum group; we had 

 been unable to kill it before because we were too busy 

 stopping the charge of the cows. I was sorry to have to 

 shoot the third cow, but with elephant starting to charge 

 at twenty-five yards the risk is too great, and the need of 

 instant action too imperative, to allow of any hesitation. 



Round the elephant 

 From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt 



