SECOND EXPEDITION TO SOUTH AFRICA 9) 
skin, put it in the hole and draw the ashes and fire over it, and 
in two or three hours it was done to a turn and excellent food. 
_ Next day, about 4 p.m., we came up with the herd we were 
looking for—eleven bulls, all well furnished with ivory. It 
was so late in the day that we were in doubt whether to attack 
or leave them till the morrow, but as there was no water for 
the horses, I decided to go in at once, the more so as the 
elephants were standing lazily among thin bush in an easy 
country. Looking for the finest tusks, I rode out and killed 
the first bull without any trouble, but the next two gave plenty, 
and took more time than I had reckoned on, and the night 
closed in so rapidly that 1 was obliged to give up further 
attempts ; had there been sufficient daylight I always thought 
I should have shot them all, for they were so tired and dis- 
inclined to run that they walked sulkily a little distance and 
then stood again. The men never forgave the want of light, 
and often asked me afterwards to press a herd till they were 
done up and then shoot them all, a programme difficult of 
execution as a rule—this might have been the exception. 
_ I had dismounted, and we were making our fires when an 
elephant trumpeted fifty yards from us. He had probably lost 
__ his friends in the scrimmage and was trying to find them. I 
_ got within twenty-five yards of him, but could only see very 
indistinctly a mass of something, though he stood in rather an 
open place. There was no chance of my stalking any nearer. 
_I might have run forward and got a shot, but it was too dark 
to play tricks. John squatted with the second gun and 
whispered to me to do the same, and, gazing steadily against 
_the sky, I could now make out the elephant enough to tell his 
head from his tail-end. I fired—a shoulder-shot—and, stumb- 
; a length or two, down he came. It was a good day’s 
work, though it might, as I have said, have been better ; but 
four first-rate bulls and at least 500 lbs. of ivory lay within a 
of three or four acres, and there were, besides, the two 
had killed the day before, one of which had very heavy teeth. 
We lit our pipes and smoked quietly for a time, and then 
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