74 After Big Game in Central Africa 



for a great part of our stay here, until the day, in fact, 

 I have prepared to play upon her a trick of my own. 

 The 7th passes without incident ; on the 8th we 

 follow the track of two male elephants, but they are 

 too far ahead of us, and our trouble is for nothing. 

 On the 9th we meet with the tracks of eight ele- 

 phants, including two large males, and we overtake 

 them after only two hours' march. I kill a big male. 

 As to the other male and a female, I wound but lose 

 them both after a day's pursuit. However, as the 

 male seemed to me to be doomed, I send four men 

 in search of it. They return without result, after 

 passing the night out of doors. 1 The camp is trans- 

 ported near the dead elephant, passes two nights 

 there, and then returns with the smoked meat. On 

 the 13th I kill an old female which has twice charged 

 Rodzani. I fire five bullets into the region of the 

 heart, and she does not appear to be any the worse, but 

 goes off quietly, hardly bleeding. We follow her at 

 a distance, expecting every moment to see her fall. 

 As she is going right towards the camp, it is so much 

 labour saved. At last, at the end of more than half 

 an hour, she decides to fall and die. She bled 

 internally, and, her abdomen full of blood, travelled 

 more than four miles ! 



On the 17th we meet with a herd of buffaloes, 

 behind which I see three magnificent lions, which 

 disappear before I am able to fire at them. We 

 follow the lions for a time, but soon give them up to 



1 I found this elephant dead on the 26th, and extracted three of 

 my bullets from it. I took its tusks, weighing about 35 Ibs. 



