on our way through the forest, when we came 

 across a herd of elephants feeding in a valley. We 

 did not interfere with them, not wishing to shoot 

 animals in herds. The General, moreover, had 

 shot his two tuskers (one with a single bullet and 

 the other with my aid), so we continued our course 

 down the valley. When we had put, perhaps, two- 

 thirds of a mile between ourselves and the herd, 

 we got into the wind of the latter, and saw them 

 stampeding in the opposite direction. We walked 

 on, until, all of a sudden, a crashing down the hill- 

 side above revealed the fact that the animals were 

 rushing straight upon us. On our right, in the 

 direction from which the elephants were coming, 

 stood a thick bamboo clump, and to this I took 

 the General and the men, and we stood behind 

 it to let the elephantine avalanche sweep by. 



The herd was steering to pass the clump on our 

 left, but one cow came round on the right and 

 pulled up and faced me. She was so close that her 

 head was within three or four feet of the muzzle 

 of my rifle when I levelled it. There was no time 

 to ask her further intentions, and, moreover, we 

 were between her and her companions, so I shot 

 her dead. 



I was very sorry to have been obliged to shoot 

 a cow, but under the circumstances it was in- 

 evitable. 



Upon the other, and previous occasion in the 

 same trip, a friendly tree was our shelter, and the 

 herd, which had got our wind, filed past on our 

 right within a few paces, and without seeing us. 



221 



