loo ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA chap. 



affecting my comfort and buoyancy, and upsetting the nerves, 

 thus interfering with one's shooting. But I soon got tired of 

 taking it easy, though I amused myself with my Httle .250 rook 

 rifle (a much handier weapon in Africa than a shot-gun) by 

 shooting pigeons which congregated in the trees every afternoon 

 to drink at the pool where we got our water. These made a 

 pleasant \ariety to one's bill of fare too, either in a stew with 

 elephant's heart, which I dignified by the name of " pigeon pie," 

 or roasted on a stick ; in the latter way, with a piece of 

 elephant's fat skewered over them, they are excellent. Butter- 

 flies, the search for which is a great resource at odd times as 

 well as on the march, were at this time almost absent here. So 

 on the third day I went out with only my gunbearers, the 

 Xdorobo being still immovable. I took a round in a direction I 

 thought it likely the elephants might have retired in, and climbed 

 a high koppie to get a view over the country. Sitting on the 

 top with my glasses, I was able to get a glimpse of two or 

 three elephants some miles away in a valley close under the 

 hills, as they passed through a small open space at its mouth. 

 However, my luck did not bear me out in spite of this good 

 beginning ; for the wind was most perverse, and though I 

 ev'entually did get a glimpse of one's head, as it was almost a 

 front view the chance was a poor one, and my shot had perhaps 

 better not have been fired, as it did no good and I failed to get 

 up to the elephants again. My experience is that a shot in the 

 head, though it may not touch the brain, will almost always 

 stun a cow, thus giving one time for another shot as she rises ; 

 but a big bull is not so easily felled, his massive skull resisting 

 the force of the blow better, nor is his brain so easily reached. 

 In this dense scrub, however, one had to make the most of such 

 glimpses as one could get, though, as I became more at home 

 in it, I found it possible to manoeuvre close up to the elephants 

 and get better shots than I dare attempt before. 



The following day I was off before sunrise. My hunter 

 had not yet turned up again, so I first went to seek him at his 



