THE ELEPHANT. 175 



VIII. 



LET us now go to the south, our way enlivened by one 

 of the hunting adventures of the unfortunate Captain 

 Speke. 



This happened in the Oungoro. 



" Some elephants were signalled in the neighbour- 

 hood. My comrade and I our guns ready dis- 

 covered a troop of a hundred females, on a plain 

 covered with tall grass, here and there sprinkled 

 with hillocks, clothed with dwarf shrubs. We fired 

 at a dozen at least without killing one of these 

 enormous beasts, and only one seemed inclined to 

 charge. Profiting by the thickness of the grass, I 

 crept within reach of the herd, and sent a shot at one 

 of the largest, which had separated from the rest while 

 browsing. The others, taking alarm, formed a group, 

 and snuffing the air with their trunks simultaneously 

 raised, finished by satisfying themselves from the smell 

 of the powder that their enemy was in front of them. 

 Then, waving their trunks, they came nearer to the 

 place where I lay screened by a bend in the ground. 



"When they scented me, their march was at once 

 suspended, and erecting their heads, they surveyed 

 me askaunt from head to foot. The situation was 

 menacing. I could not manage so as to strike one 

 in such a way as that it should fall under the blow, 



