A Charging Elephant Killed. 137 



small stream. This was about sixty yards from the nearest 

 of them. I could not see any very large bull and I fired 

 at the best one I saw, which seemed to have 3olb. 

 tusks. He was standing fairly broadside on ; so I took a 

 line between the orifice of the ear and the eye, shooting 

 a few inches forward of the earhole. At my shot he 

 dropped and I thought I had brained him. Then the herd 

 broke away in all directions, and two young bulls a little 

 smaller in the ivories than the one I had dropped, came 

 round at us. 



We all made pretty good time to some trees in the rear. 

 I stopped when I got to a tree about two feet in diameter, 

 and so did the man who was carrying my cartridge bag, an 

 Awemba named Kalenje, and he took up his position 

 behind a tree a few paces behind me. 



He then said to me that the elephant fired at was getting 

 up, and on looking I saw it was making violent efforts 

 to get on its legs. By this time the two young bulls had 

 gone round towards the direction of the bolting herd, so 1 

 fired a shot at the wounded elephant which it did not seem 

 to feel at all. As soon as it got on its legs it immediately 

 started in our direction, for the last shot had evidently 

 shown it where we were. Whether it was charging with 

 intent it is difficult to say, but, judging from its demeanour 

 and the shrill screams it gave, I think it was. Anyhow, it 

 was coming straight for my tree, increasing its pace at 

 every stride, and the " frou-frou JJ of its feet as they swept 

 through the dry grass I still remember. After the first 

 screams it was silent, and it held its trunk down covering 

 its chest, making a heart shot useless. 



I had in my hand a -303 sporting rifle holding ten shots 

 in the magazine. As I had only put eight cartridges in to 

 start with and had fired two shots, I had six shots left. As 

 the elephant came along in a bee-line, I began firing at it, 

 taking a steady rest against the trunk of the tree and 

 shooting just above the eyes. He took the first two shots 

 with a shake of his head, and the third shot, at a distance of 

 about 20 yards, got his brain, and he lurched over on his 



