FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND ACRES 181 



Akeley signaled me to shoot. From where I stood 

 I could not see the tusks at first, but as his head 

 turned more I saw the great white shafts of ivory. 

 The visible ivory was evidently about four feet 

 long, and indicated that he carried forty or fifty 

 pounds of ivory. Then, quicker than a wink, the 

 great dark mass was galvanized into motion. He 

 darted forward, crashing through the bamboo as 

 though it had been a bed of reeds, and in five 

 seconds had disappeared. For some moments we 

 heard his great form crashing away, farther and 

 farther, until it finally died out in the distance. 



It was the first wild elephant I had ever seen, 

 and it is photographed on my memory so vividly as 

 never to be forgotten. I was more than half glad 

 that I had not shot and that he had got away un- 

 harmed. 



That night we camped in a little circular clear- 

 ing which the Akeleys called "Tembo Circus," for 

 it was near this same clearing that one of their 

 large elephants had been killed three years before, 

 and in the clearing the skin had been prepared for 

 preservation. All about us stretched the vast forest, 

 full of strange night sounds and spectral in the 

 darkness. In the morning we awoke in a dense cloud 

 and did not break camp until afternoon. Our Ki- 

 kuyu and Wanderobo guides were sent out with 

 promises of liberal backsheesh to find fresh trails, 

 but they returned with unfavorable reports, so we 

 marched back to the main camp again. 



Thus ended our Kenia elephant experience, for 



