208 BIG GAME SHOOTING 
he decides to follow a little longer, realising by this time that a 
stern chase is a long one. At last, as he plods wearily along, 
he comes across dung that is actually smoking, a sure sign that 
he is now pretty close to his game. A little further on the 
welcome sound of a branch being snapped, or the rumbling 
noise peculiar to the elephant, catches his ear; then he realises 
that he may see the beasts themselves at any moment, and is 
therefore thoroughly on the alert. Taking one of his heavy 
rifles from a gun-bearer and putting two or three spare car- 
tridges into his pocket, if he has not already done so, and 
telling his gun-bearer to keep close up, while the rest of the 
men remain behind until they either hear a shot or a signal 
to come on, he pushes forward with the greatest caution, a 
curious mixture of coolness and intense excitement. 
Should the nature of the ground in which the sportsman 
finds them be open, so as to prevent his getting nearer than 
40 yards, the shoulder shot is the best to take at elephants, 
and I believe is almost universally recommended by all old 
elephant hunters. Should the beasts, however, be found 
standing in dense bush or tall cane-like grass (and they are 
very partial to these places) where it is impossible to see them 
until within 20 yards or less, and where even then all but the head 
and outline of the back is hidden, the temple is the best shot, 
and a shot anywhere between the eye and a little dark mark 
which indicates the orifice of the ear would be instantly fatal. 
When elephants are standing in thick bush and long grass, 
unless a sportsman has had a good deal of experience with 
them, the fact of seeing their huge backs towering above the 
covert is rather apt to deceive him in regard to the posi- 
tion of their heart and Jungs. The great depth of their 
bodies would probably lead him to shoot too high, and a 
bullet placed too high, although it might eventually prove 
fatal, would not prevent the beast getting clean away at the 
time. 
The hunt after the first elephant I ever killed is a very 
air example of many which I have had, though I regret to say 
