In Wildest Africa ^ 



elephants still more. There are indeed other denizens 

 of the East African jungle whose defensive and offensive 

 capabilities it would be no less a mistake to under estimate. 

 The most experienced and most authoritative Anglo-Saxon 

 sportsmen are, in fact, agreed that, whether it be a question 

 of going after lions or leopards or African buffaloes, sooner 

 or later the luck goes against the hunter. Of recent years 

 a large number of good shots have lost their lives in Africa. 

 If one of these animals once gets at you, you are as good 

 as dead. To be chased by an African elephant is as 

 exciting a sensation as a man could wish for. The fierce- 

 ness of his on-rush passes description. He makes for you 

 suddenly, unexpectedly. The overpowering proportions of 

 the enraged beast — the grotesque aspect of his immense 

 flapping ears, which make his huge head look more 

 formidable than ever — the incredible pace at which he 

 thunders along — all combine with his shrill trumpeting to 

 produce an effect upon the mind of the hunter, now turned 

 quarry, which he will never shake himself rid of as long as life 

 lasts. When — as happened once to me — it is a case not of 

 one single elephant, but of an entire herd giving chase in 

 the open plain (as described in With Flashlight and Rifle), 

 the reader will have no difficulty in understanding that 

 even now I sometimes live the whole situation over again 

 in my dreams and that I have more than once awoke from 

 them in a frenzy of terror. 



Of course, a man becomes hardened in regard to hunting 

 accidents in course of time, especially if all his adventures 

 have had fortunate issues. When, however, a man has 

 repeatedly escaped destruction by a hair's-breadth only, and 



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