AN AFRICAN E L E PH AN T- H U N T 



and had opened fire at about forty yards. He had badly 

 crippled one bull elephant with the first barrel of his heavy 

 rifle, and hit but not stopped the other bull with the second, 

 firing several shots into it with a .35-caliber Winchester as it 

 made off with the remainder of the herd. The wounded ele- 

 phant had started to walk slowly toward him when he dropped 

 it in its tracks with a bullet between the eyes. He had camped 

 in the open by the carcass of the elephant, and during the 

 night more of the animals had passed quite close to him in the 

 darkness. He had also followed the second wounded bull for 

 some distance the next morning, but found no traces of blood. 



During the week we remained in the country we had one 

 more elephant-hunt, which had a very amusing but unsuccess- 

 ful termination. One hot noon a report was brought in by 

 Mutari of elephants in the grass country beyond his main vil- 

 lage, and the two of us, with our gun-bearers, three porters, 

 and an askari, started immediately for the scene. In order to 

 avoid the crowd of villagers who usually accompanied us, and 

 were continually in our way in these hunts, we passed rapidly 

 through the village, picking up the old chief and his two sons, 

 and camped in a corn-field some miles away. After spending 

 an uncomfortable and sultry night in fighting mosquitoes, we 

 were anything but delighted to see about twenty-five natives, 

 armed for the fray and eager for the chase, troop into camp at 

 daylight. Several hours later we reached the tracks of a small 

 herd of elephants, but were disgusted to discover that they had 

 been made two days previous. 



It transpired that the natives had discovered the elephants 

 several days before, and it so pleased them that it was neces- 

 sary- to hold a drunken orgy and a grand feast before reporting 

 the fact to us. As there was a faint possibility that the ele- 

 phants might have fed in one locality for more than a day, we 

 followed the broad path trampled through the grass for several 

 hours under a hot sun. Three hours later we were in the midst 



145 



