88 ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA chap. 



many times, I was invariably unlucky, and during the time I 

 waited for the return of my men I never killed one ; I got 

 chances two or three times, but in every case I failed to score 

 for one reason or another. Twice I did get shots, though 

 indifferent ones, but both got away. The bush is dense and 

 thorny and of great extent, and the elephants are never found 

 except in the thickest parts, while I and the Ndorobos had to 

 get used to each other's ways and style of hunting. I also 

 wasted much of my time in hunting for meat for my men, 

 which kept me pretty hard worked, as game had to be sought 

 a considerable distance away. To give an example : one day 

 some of my Xdorobo friends brought me word that there were 

 some elephants in a valley some distance to the north. I was 

 off with them first thing next morning, taking some of my men 

 to carry a few necessaries to enable me to sleep out, but no 

 tent. On the way I shot at and broke the shoulder of an 

 oryx, and my little dog brought it to bay ; but before I could 

 get up to give it another shot she came back to me, letting it 

 away, and it got into thick bush and was unfortunately lost. 

 Farther on I killed a gazelle, though, which sufficed to keep 

 the wolf from the door for that day. 



After leaving the extra men with my things at a little 

 spring at the head of the valley containing the bush where the 

 elephants were said to be, I went on with the two Ndorobo 

 guides and my gunbearers to look for them. We found the 

 spoor of a small herd of cows and calves, and, after much 

 trouble, at length got close to them. But the wind was fickle, 

 and, as is so often the case in these dense bushes under the 

 hills, came in provoking eddies, and before we could get up 

 to them they had got our wind and were already in full 

 retreat, and, though we followed some distance, all the satis- 

 faction I got was a glimpse of them making off, without the 

 chance of a shot, for the bush was too dense to allow of my 

 running up to them. The next morning I was off again 

 early, though feeling rather slack after a bad night, through 



