In Pursuit of Elephants 53 



feel the heat more than we do, and if it continues, 

 they will probably slacken their pace, perhaps stop 

 altogether. 



About noon we are very far from the camp 

 they do, in fact, get under the shade from time to 

 time to gather fulas. We are less than a mile 

 behind them. At that moment the wind changes 

 and makes us fear that all our trouble may be lost : so 

 we turn immediately towards the right, in order not 

 to be smelt. Very fortunately we have not been ; 

 we escape with nothing worse than a fright. At this 

 time of the year elephants travel more slowly and 

 for shorter distances ; but on the other hand, the 

 wind changes frequently, 1 and sometimes at the very 

 moment you see your quarry. 



About one o'clock in the afternoon the heat begins 

 to be intense, but the sky to the north is black and 

 we shall have rain soon. We must make haste. 

 Soon we see the elephants in front of us : they are 

 going at a walking pace among the trees ; we can 

 distinguish their large gray cruppers and, every now 

 and then, their ears. Again the wind changes, but 

 that does not trouble us. We make haste. When 

 only thirty yards behind, I scrutinise the animals ; 

 my men, bearing to the right and the left, doing the 

 same. We see that they are all females and all with 

 tusks. One of them, which appears to be the biggest 

 and the oldest, is a little in the rear. At that 



1 In these regions from August to November, the wind is very 

 steady, blowing from the south-east ; but during the rest of the year it 

 changes often and blows during a day from the four points of the 

 compass alternately. 



