H2 After Big Game in Central Africa 



without tusks, 1 because they charge almost always, 

 aud sometimes without other provocation than a 

 shout or the report of a rifle, I did, indeed, think 

 of that v for a moment when we entered the reeds ; but 

 the sudden appearance of our old male had surprised 

 me, and, in great danger of being smelt, forced me to 

 act immediately. I had forgotten that the female was 

 perhaps a few steps away ; which was the case, since 

 she entered the thicket the last of all. 



As soon as the female falls we think of going to 

 see the result of my first shot, or rather my two first 

 shots, because I fired two at the head of the male 

 elephant ; but the idea suddenly strikes us that, 

 although the elephants have fled a long time ago, 

 the young one will not perhaps leave its mother it 

 will return assuredly. Above all things, we must 

 decide upon a means of capturing it. The fan-palms 

 are not far away and their leaves will furnish us with 

 a first-class rope : so I send all the men to cut them, 

 advising them to go by the water's edge in order not 

 to disturb the young elephant if he is in the reeds. 

 Hardly have my men left than I hear an animal 

 walking and breaking the reeds, first behind me and 

 then on the left. It is the young elephant, which 

 arrives at the water's edge and stops before its mother's 

 body. 



Its appearance is somewhat comical. Its skin 

 appears to be much too big for it, and to fall in folds 

 everywhere ; one would say that it had put on the 

 coat and trousers of its elder brother. Its ears 



1 See Mes Grandes Chasses, p. 290. 



