CHAPTER IV. 



Warnings against the bush Search after a leopard Unsteady hands- 

 Methods of hunting elephants Speed of the elephant Bush-travelling 

 Traces of the elephants Solitude of the bush Tracking the herd- 

 Charge of angry elephants The horses reached Search for the wounded 

 elephant The successful shot An unwitting escape. 



I HAD received so many accounts from different sources 

 as to the great dangers that were certainly to be met 

 in the dense bush of the Berea, and also the part that 

 extended across the Urnganie for several miles up the 

 coast, that I had hesitated attempting so rash a course 

 as entering it until I had gathered experience from 

 trying cautiously at first what dangers I was likely to 

 encounter. " Elephants would catch me ; tigers (i. e. 

 leopards) becroup (i. e. stalk) me ; snakes bite me/ 7 &c. : 

 these and other horrors would be sure to entail my return 

 on a shutter. I frequently rode round and looked for a 

 short distance into different parts of the bush, gathering 

 confidence each time. 



One morning early, a Hottentot man came to tell me 

 that his master had sent him to ask if I would like to join 

 a party going out after a leopard that had destroyed 

 several chickens, and had also breakfasted on a half-grown 

 pig on the said morning. I was glad of this chance, as I 

 hoped to see some sport, and immediately shouldering my 

 gun, and fastening a large clasp-knife in my belt, joined 

 my guide, who led me to a house on the outskirts of the 



