146 IN AFRICA 



Among elephant hunters it is considered more 

 dangerous to attack a cow elephant than a bull, for 

 the cow is always ready and eager to defend its 

 calf, hence when Colonel Roosevelt prepared to 

 open fire on a cow elephant, accompanied by a calf, 

 at a range of thirty yards, in a district where the 

 highest tree was within reach of an elephant's trunk, 

 the situation was one fraught with tense uncer- 

 tainty. 



Colonel Roosevelt is undoubtedly a brave man. 

 The men who have hunted with him in Africa say 

 that he has never shown the slightest sign of fear 

 in all the months of big game hunting that they 

 have done together. He "holds straight," as they 

 say in shooting parlance, and at short range, where 

 his eyesight is most effective, he shoots accurately. 



This, then, was the dramatic situation at about 

 twelve o'clock noon on November fifteenth, eight 

 miles east of the Nzoia River, near Mount Elgon: 

 Eight cow elephants, two totos, one ex-president 

 with a double-barreled cordite rifle thirty yards 

 away, supported by three other hunters similarly 

 armed, with native gunbearers held in the rear as a 

 supporting column. 



The colonel opened fire ; the biggest cow dropped 

 to her knees and in an instant the air was thunder- 

 ous with the excited "milling" of the herd of ele- 

 phants. For several anxious minutes the spot was 

 the scene of much confusion, and when quiet was 

 once more restored Colonel Roosevelt had killed 

 three elephants and Kermit had killed one of the 



