THE ELEPHANT 209 
a very large proportion have not been so successful as this 
2 ; was. 
In May 1887 I was encamped on one of the numerous 
streams on the southern slopes of Kilimanjaro, below Kiboso, 
__ with my friend Mr. H. C. V. Hunter. 
: This country, as I have said elsewhere, is very undulating, 
and the covert on it very varied, brush and grass ro to 12 ft. 
high alternating with open forest of table-topped mimosa or 
dense clumps of bush and large forest trees. It is, however, 
decidedly an unfavourable country for sport, as the wind is very 
uncertain and can never be relied upon to keep steady, owing 
probably to the proximity of the mountain, which causes the 
_ cross currents and eddies that constantly betray the sports- 
man’s presence. Mr. Hunter and I were three weeks in this 
country, and I think we each came up with elephants nearly 
__ every day we were out ; but one of these cross currents or eddies 
in the wind betrayed us before we could see the beasts in the 
_ dense covert. When we did see them, they were nearly always 
_ im the densest bush or long grass, and we got very few good 
__ shots compared with the number of times we were actually within 
_ shooting range. On the morning of the 29th I left camp with 
_ thirteen men, very early, with the intention of following up the . 
_ spoor of a grand bull which I had severely wounded the day 
before. This beast I had followed up until he brought me round 
_ inacircle to within a couple of miles of camp, and as it was late 
_ in the afternoon and I was pretty well knocked up at the time, 
I gave up the hunt for the day, intending to take up the spoor 
again on the following morning. Unfortunately, there was 
heavy rain during the night, which, however, stopped just about 
an hour before we started from camp, and when we picked up 
the spoor we found that all traces of blood, which had been 
very conspicuous the day before, had been completely washed 
away. However, there was no mistaking the spoor of this beast 
On account of its size ; we managed to get along at a good 
pace, and had gone about three miles when we found that a 
big herd had subsequently got on to the same track, and had 
we oe. 
