ON THE J AM BEN I RANGE 



We went on to leeward of where we had heard the 

 elephants and got into a tall, leafy undergrowth, though 

 not very dense, and soon came out into a swamp bordered 

 by tall " fever " and other trees with a little open between : 

 a very ideal elephant haunt. We were uncertain now of 

 the exact whereabouts of the elephants, so proceeded very 

 cautiously up wind towards where we supposed them to be ; 

 and before we had got far into the jungle, after leaving the 

 swamp, we made one out. I then took my double .577 and 

 leaving the men, approached stealthily quite close to the one 

 we had first seen, till there was nothing between me and it 

 but a smallish tree (through the fork of which I looked) and 

 a little thin jungle. Great colonies of weaver birds, thronging 

 the bush, made a great din with both voices and wings, with 

 a rather confusing effect. It was a cow ; a big one, though 

 her tusks were not large. I could now make out two or three 

 others (apparently also cows) beyond, and I knew there were 

 pretty certain to be more I could not see ; but there was no 

 possible chance of getting farther without disturbing the 

 nearest, so I determined to shoot her if I could. I should 

 mention that it was now fully four months since I started 

 from the coast on this expedition, the expenses of which were 

 heavy, and these were the first elephants I had come across : 

 so I was not inclined to risk failure through trying to pick 

 and choose. She was, however, facing me, her great ears 

 stretched out or slowly flapping. I could only see her head 

 and my object was to get a temple shot. I waited, I think, 

 not less than a quarter of an hour for her to turn her head. 

 Once I tried to sneak round farther, but she and another 

 next to her started and I slunk back. I suppose an eddy 

 of wind gave them a slight whiff of me, or they may have 

 heard me moving ; probably the latter, as they were not 

 sufficiently alarmed to move when I kept still again. I was 

 not more than ten paces from the one in front of me, I should 

 say, and meditated the advisability of putting my bullet right 



