206 LARGE GAME. chap. iv. 



the loads which they carried on their heads in bundles 

 made of green branches. 



On the other occasion to which I have alluded as 

 killing an elephant with a single bullet a troop of them 

 had been heard in this same bush from the top of the 

 mountain, and word having been sent to me, I went down 

 that evening with my hunters, and sleeping at a ford 

 about three miles lower down, started after them next 

 morning. On arriving at the spot, and while examining 

 the numerous tracks in search of the latest, we heard the 

 peculiar rumbling noise that they involuntarily make, and 

 without troubling ourselves further about the spoor, we 

 entered the bush, each going his own way. 



In a few minutes after doing so I came across a track 

 which, from certain indications, could not, I knew, be 

 more than ten minutes old at the outside, and before I 

 had gone far I heard the branches breaking in front of me 

 in such a way as proved that the animal was still feeding. 

 Every now and then from different parts all round me 

 came that peculiar rumble, proving that the herd was 

 scattered, and that I was right in the middle of it, so, 

 stealing along this narrow path among the cactus, I crept 

 forward foot by foot ; quite certain that I should see one of 

 them in a minute, and noting as I passed the evidences of 

 their enormous strength in the uprooted trees and broken 

 branches lying in every direction. At last I caught sight 

 of the great black hind-quarters of one, my attention 

 being drawn to it by the violent shaking of the bushes, 

 and as I could not fire at it with any hope of success in 

 its present position, I at first crouched down, intending 

 to wait till it turned, but when it moved forward and 



