l8o THE GAME OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA. 



the thickest and worst country in Africa, shooting is much more dangerous than 

 it used to be. 



But to resume our examination of the spoor found. If it proves to be that of 

 several bulls together you are in luck, and should lose no time in getting on the 

 tracks. These you will follow, up hill and down dale, through thick and tangled 

 nullahs, and up into easier-going forest again, till either the spoor begins to show 

 fresher or sunset compels you to choose a place for the night's camp, and you make 

 yourself as comfortable as circumstances permit. 



If by the spoor you see that the elephants are trekking straight on, and 

 this straight trekking has continued all day, it would be as well to give up 

 following them. In such a case you would return to camp and await fresh 

 khabar, or try to strike tracks elsewhere where they are fresher. If, however, 

 the tracks you are following show signs that the elephants are spreading 

 out and feeding much by the way, it is a hopeful sign, and you are probably 

 overhauling them rapidly. Elephants if they have been alarmed will travel 

 enormous distances the same night, and it is then, as a rule, hopeless to follow 

 them. If they have not been alarmed it is often possible in the early morning 

 to get on their spoor of the previous day, and by following it up to come upon them 

 the same day, but it generally means walking. Sometimes, however, they remain 

 in the same locality for several days together, making much the same round each 

 day. That is to say, that they will drink at night from different parts of the same 

 stream, and be found on the same hill in the morning and move on to another place 

 for midday, and again move on in the afternoon to their night's grazing-ground, 

 returning to the same stream to drink later on. If this is the case you may find 

 them quite close to the place in which your native scout has seen or heard them. 

 After a few days in one locality they will suddenly trek off for no apparent reason. 



When following the spoor, and it begins to get quite fresh, it is as well to leave 

 your carriers behind. 



Once on fresh spoor the points to notice are, the wind and the obtaining of 

 as early a warning as possible of the elephants' presence. The wind is the all- 

 important point about elephant-hunting. A little bag of flour to shake out from 

 time to time, so as to learn its exact direction, is a most valuable aid. So long 

 as you can keep the wind right and do not make any very violent noise you are 

 all right. But it is just this keeping of the wind right which is so difficult in these 

 forests. Also, you can see only such a short distance that it is hard to locate the 

 animals, and you may be passing them at any moment, for they frequently double 

 on their tracks. 



