THE WESTERN BEND 245 



These elephants were pulling up and eating the cane- 

 grass sedge, or a big jointed-reed (carex or arundo] 

 and later on I had opportunity at close quarters of 

 verifying the fact. The herd was attended by kites and 

 grey herons (probably Ardea melanocephala], soaring 

 round and pouncing on insects or reptiles disturbed by 

 the grazing monsters. Curiously there were here no white 

 egrets in company. After watching and sketching the 

 elephants for an hour, I fired a shot in the air. The cows 

 closed up at once in a solid phalanx, trunks towering up 





Two OF THE HERD. ELEPHANT BULL AND Cow. 



aloft to test the air ; but none of the outlying bulls took 

 the slightest notice. 



Close up to these last the grass had been burnt, so that 

 a direct approach appeared easy though quite probably 

 it might not have proved so. I wrote in diary : " For 

 the second time in my life it has been my luck to come 

 across massed elephants in broad daylight, open country, 

 and a strong breeze. On the first occasion, after an 

 hour of absorbing excitement, we secured four elephants 

 aggregating 300 Ib. of ivory. This time I am content 

 to leave them in peace, though actually at my mercy." 1 



1 Subsequent experience in these abominable bogs, with their deep 

 intersecting khors, suggests that the attack might not have been so easy 

 as I had anticipated at the time. 



