TALES OF A NOMAD. 



To my mind the very essence of sport lies in having to 

 do all the work oneself, and for this reason I have never 

 been able to conceive how certain forms of Indian sport 

 in which elephants and a large number of beaters are 

 employed, can for an instant be compared with African 

 sport, for in the latter the hunter has to find his game, 

 follow it up, and kill it, all off his own bat as the saying 

 goes. 



But to continue our story. The elephant was direct- 

 ing his course towards the sea and generally parallel to 

 the river. We followed up the spoor. At first it led 

 amongst some small stony hills, over which he had 

 travelled in a bee line without stopping to feed ; but it 

 descended into the plain again, where the ground was 

 soft and the task of spooring was easy. 



It was an open question whether we should succeed 

 in coming up with him that day. If he was making a 

 distant point, he might travel for fifty miles without 

 stopping, but if he was going to some favourite feeding 

 ground only a few miles off we were pretty sure to come 

 up with him. 



While tracking him, we came upon two rhinoceri who 

 were having a bath in a mud hole. They jumped up 

 and went off with a tremendous scurry, but I did not fire 

 for I feared to disturb the elephant. At last we came to 

 where the elephant had lingered for some time to feed, 

 and here his tracks wandered about in a zigzag way all 

 over the place. Farther on, we came to a huge pile of 

 droppings which showed that he had rested here for some 

 hours. The spoor now perceptibly freshened, and I felt 

 pretty sure we should come up with him that day. 

 About three P.M. we came to where he had bathed. He 

 had again lingered here. In another half-hour we came 



