A LARGE HERD OF ELEPHANTS ENCOUNTERED 



The question was now : What to do with him ? We 

 were a long way from the coast, and to send him back to 

 Berbera under escort, would mean weakening my caravan. 

 It was a difficult problem to solve; however, after expending 

 on him my choicest vocabulary of abuse, I made a great 

 show of magnanimity and forgave him ! As he gave no 

 further trouble throughout the expedition, I could only 

 conclude that he had been duly impressed by the action I 

 had taken. 



But to return to my camp at Leakat ; we found the 

 jungles here teeming with game, and saw large herds of 

 oryx, hartebeest and sommering gazelles almost daily, 

 but being after nobler game we left all these animals 

 severely alone. 



One morning about eight o'clock one of my tracker scouts 

 rode in to say that his party had struck the spoor of a large 

 herd of elephants, some six miles off. We saddled up at 

 once and, following our guide, came on the herd, consisting 

 of some sixty individuals, in a thick forest of the largest 

 kind of thorn trees, with gnarled stems and branches, in 

 an undergrowth of grass and aloes. 



We were a large party of ten horsemen of the Habe 

 Awal and Gadabarsi tribe, beside ray own two men, Gung- 

 dya and Sabha. As we reined in at the edge of the forest, 

 we heard the snapping of branches, and the peculiar low, 

 rumbling noise elephants make when feeding, in the dense 

 covert in front of us. 



Taking Khaliffa, the reformed, and Sabha with me, I 

 cautiously crept forward and suddenly found myself in the 

 midst of the herd. Firing at the largest elephant — which 

 unfortunately turned out to be a cow — I brought her down 

 with a shot in the temple. 



The horsemen now surroundcti the herd and formed a 

 • urdon round them. It was very exciting work as these 

 wild-looking riders, brandishing their spears dashed forward 

 at headlong speed regardless of thorn trees and bushes, and 

 circling roimd the now infuriated animals prevented them 

 from breaking out of the ring. 



Tlie jungli- seemed alive with elephants, rushing singly 



in groups of five or six in all directions, intent only on 

 (■aping. I had killed five bulls with shoulder and temple 



