554 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



to pass to windward of us. The young bull, however, observed 

 the fire ; he at once walked up to it, and, smelling at it with 

 his trunk, seemed extremely amused, and in a gamboling 

 humor threw his trunk about, as if not knowing what to 

 think of it. The larger bull now came up and exposed a 

 fine broadside ; we took him behind the shoulder and fired 

 together ; on receiving the shots, he wheeled about and held 

 west with drooping ears, evidently mortally wounded. 



Some time after this I detected an enormous old bull 

 elephant approaching from the west. If we lay still where 

 we were, he must in a few minutes get our wind, so we 

 jumped up and ran forward out of his line of march. 

 Here a borel^ opposed our further progress, and we had 

 to stone him out of our way. The elephant came on, and 

 presently got the wind of where we had been lying. This 

 at once seemed to awake his suspicions, for he stood still 

 among the trees, stretching his trunk from side to side to 

 catch the scent, and doubtful whether he should advance or 

 retreat. We then ran toward him, and stalked in within 

 forty yards of where he stood, and, taking up a position 

 behind a bush, awaited his forward movement. The elephant 

 came slowly forward, and I thought would pass to windward 

 of us, when he suddenly altered his course, and walked boldly 

 forward right for where we stood. He came on until within 

 seven or eight yards, when I coughed loudly to turn him. 

 He tossed up his trunk and turned quickly round to fly ; as 

 he turned, however, we fired together, when the elephant 

 uttered a shrill cry of distress, and crashed away, evidently 

 hard hit. When this bull was standing before us, we both 

 remarked that he was the finest we had seen that night : his 

 tusks were extremely long, thick, and very unusually wide set. 



We now returned to the fountain, and once more lay down 

 to watch. Rhinoceroses, both black and white, were parading 

 around us all night in every direction. We had lain but 

 a short time when I detected a single old bull elephant 



