SECOND EXPEDITION TO SOUTH AFRICA 99 



skin, put it in the hole and draw the ashes and fire over it, and 

 in two or three hours it was done to a turn and excellent food. 



Next day, about 4 P.M., we came up with the herd we were 

 looking for eleven bulls, all well furnished with ivory. It 

 was so late in the day that we were in doubt whether to attack 

 or leave them till the morrow, but as there was no water for 

 the horses, I decided to go in at once, the more so as the 

 elephants were standing lazily among thin bush in an easy 

 country. Looking for the finest tusks, I rode out and killed 

 the first bull without any trouble, but the next two gave plenty, 

 and took more time than I had reckoned on, and the night 

 closed in so rapidly that I was obliged to give up further 

 attempts ; had there been sufficient daylight I always thought 

 I should have shot them all, for they were so tired and dis- 

 inclined to run that they walked sulkily a little distance and 

 then stood again. The men never forgave the want of light, 

 and often asked me afterwards to press a herd till they were 

 done up and then shoot them all, a programme difficult of 

 execution as a rule this might have been the exception. 



I had dismounted, and we were making our fires when an 

 elephant trumpeted fifty yards from us. He had probably lost 

 his friends in the scrimmage and was trying to find them. I 

 got within twenty-five yards of him, but could only see very 

 indistinctly a mass of something, though he stood in rather an 

 open place. There was no chance of my stalking any nearer. 

 I might have run forward and got a shot, but it was too dark 

 to play tricks. John squatted with the second gun and 

 whispered to me to do the same, and, gazing steadily against 

 the sky, I could now make out the elephant enough to tell his 

 head from his tail-end. I fired a shoulder-shot and, stumb- 

 ling a length or two, down he came. It was a good day's 

 work, though it might, as I have said, have been better ; but 

 four first-rate bulls and at least 500 Ibs. of ivory lay within a 

 space of three or four acres, and there were, besides, the two 

 I had killed the day before, one of which had very heavy teeth. 



We lit our pipes and smoked quietly for a time, and then 



