ELEPHANT 205 



Both leaders had fallen, and those elephant stood with- 

 out moving ten yards for, I should say, a quarter of an hour, 

 while we profoundly wished they would take their leave and 

 let us crawl away. I tried once more to get near enoughr 

 to take a good photograph, while H. came alongside cover- 

 ing me with his rifle, but before I got within fifty yards 

 the cows screamed so, and so evidently were ready to charge 

 in a body that I had to content myself with, I fear, an 

 unsatisfactory "snap." 



At last they began to move very slowly indeed and 

 as they went one way we gladly crawled the other. Three 

 bulls down, two of them moving more than twenty yards 

 after the shot we had been fortunate indeed and we knew 

 it. In an hour or two the herds had moved about two 

 miles away. Some were feeding, others settling down into 

 the long line formation that means travelling were 

 beginning what was doubtless to be a steady march across 

 country, to the blue escarpment on the east. 



We camped the sefari and had our tea. I never enjoyed 

 it more. Some of the elephants only travelled for a few 

 hours after our attack on them, and then headed back to 

 an extensive patch of thorny country not more than five 

 miles from our camp. It was easy to keep in touch with 

 them by means of our N'dorobo. They remained feeding 

 on the mimosa shoots for another couple of days, before 

 leaving for the nearest forest land to the eastward. 



The last evening we were camped to the northeast of 

 Elgon, one of our wild men came in saying that a herd 

 was making its way campward. We started off imme- 

 diately, and John, my tent boy, who in all his far wander- 

 ings had never seen an elephant, begged to be allowed to 

 come along. It was one of those evenings one loves to 

 remember. The heat of the day was over, and a steady 

 soft breeze, fragrant from its passage over wide stretches 

 of blossoming mimosa thorn, on which prickly delicacies 



