xi THE WHITE TRAIL 113 



the hindmost with a head shot. On approaching, 

 I discovered him lying on his side groaning, as 

 a dying elephant does, and to put him out of 

 pain placed the muzzle of my '318 rifle within 

 a foot of his head, at the correct angle to 

 reach his brain, and fired. As soon as the bullet 

 struck him, his huge body was convulsed with 

 spasmodic tremors and his tail stiffened symptoms 

 invariably evinced by a recumbent elephant when 

 he has been shot in the brain and I naturally 

 inferred that he was dead. Moreover, I have 

 finished scores of elephants off with this identical 

 shot. 



My tracker, Simba, now mounted the beast's 

 body to get a better view of the surrounding 

 bush, while I sat for a five minutes' ' breather ' 

 on the animal's head before starting in pursuit 

 of the remainder of the herd. Refreshed by the 

 brief rest, we set out once more on the spoor, 

 but discovering after about half-an-hour's work, 

 that the cunning beasts, in an endeavour to 

 get our scent were beginning to follow the wind, 

 which was variable, I decided to call a halt for 

 about an hour to see if the currents of air 

 would either subside or blow steadily in one 

 direction. Bidding one of my boys make tea, I 

 sent Simba back to cut the tail off the dead 

 elephant. In about three-quarters of an hour, he 



i 



