144 IN AFRICA 



testinal rumbling, nor crash of tusks against small 

 trees were heard. Finally, at about eleven o'clock, 

 Tarlton, who, strangely enough, is partly deaf, 

 heard a sound that caused the hunting party to stop 

 short. He heard elephants. They were undoubt- 

 edly only a short distance ahead, but as the wind 

 was from their direction there was little likelihood 

 that they had heard the approach of the hunters. 

 So Tarlton, who has had much experience in ele- 

 phant hunting, led the party off at a right angle 

 from the elephant trail and then, turning, paralleled 

 the trail a few hundred feet away. They had gone 

 only a short distance when it became evident that 

 they had passed the herd, which was hidden by the 

 tall grass and the thickly-growing scrub trees that 

 grew on all sides. 



The wooded character of the country rendered it 

 easy to stalk the elephant herd, and with careful 

 attention to the wind, the four hunters and their 

 gunbearers advanced under cover until the ele- 

 phants could be seen and studied. Each of the 

 four hunters carried a large double-barreled cordite 

 rifle that fires a five-hundred-grain bullet, backed 

 up by nearly a hundred grains of cordite. 



As was expected, the herd consisted solely of 

 cows and calves. There were eight cow elephants 

 and two totos, or calves, a circumstance that was 

 particularly fortunate, as Colonel Roosevelt was 

 expected to secure one or two cows for the group, 

 while some one else was to get the calf. 



For some moments the hunting party studied 



