152 HUNTING THE ELEPHANT. 



stained beauty of the sky. We had not proceeded more 

 than two miles from camp, when we came in sight of a 

 herd of blue wildebeests, and we succeeded in getting within 

 about three hundred yards of them before they discovered 

 us and fled. Away we went in chase. These animals 

 run swiftly, and we gained but little. They led us over 

 an undulating plain and through groves of mimosa to a 

 rocky ridge, up which they sprang, and so got away un- 

 touched. We then determined to retrace our steps till 

 we could find the track of the elephant, shot at the foun- 

 ' tain. We came upon the bloody traces within about three 

 miles of the camp ; and following them up, proceeded 

 about two miles in a direction at a right angle with that 

 we had been pursuing. They then led into a thick grove 

 of mimosa and camelthorn where we heard crashing noises, 

 as if some large animal was there moving about. We 

 dismounted, and, as quietly as possible, entered the grove 

 to reconnoitre. The trees were sadly belabored by the 

 trunks of elephants, that was evident. Suddenly, as we 

 pushed aside the broken limbs we saw an elephant stretched 

 dead upon the ground, amid pools of blood ; and, along- 

 side, was standing another of those enormous animals, 

 which sometimes looked piteously at the dead one, and 

 then furiously belabored the trees, with that rage of grief 

 which causes human beings to tear the hair and beat the 

 breast. It was a cow elephant, and the slain was a lordly 



