I02 ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA chap. 



wear clothes of a reddish-brown colour — often using a decoc- 

 tion of mimosa bark to stain them if too light- — -thus re- 

 sembling the colour of many tree trunks ; and when standing 

 motionless (the wind being favourable) I think an elephant 

 takes one, so disguised, for a dry stump. I waited anxiously 

 for her to give me a chance, at the same time noticing that two 

 or three others, which I could see indistinctly behind her, 

 seemed all smaller ; so that, though my vis-a-vis' tusks were not 

 large, I decided she must be my victim. She once or twice 

 offered to approach me, and once actually came, head up, ears 

 stretched out, to within five or six yards at most. I stood firm, 

 having inwardly sworn not to spoil this chance by hurried or 

 nervous shooting, and ready, should she come right on, to give 

 her a shot in the chest and jump aside, though my object in 

 waiting was the hope of getting a chance for a temple shot, 

 knowing- that if I succeeded in that, dropping her dead on the 

 spot (as can only be done by a shot in the brain), the others 

 might probably stand and give me a chance with my second 

 barrel. She, however, hesitated, her courage seeming to fail her 

 at the last moment, or she was not sure what I was ; anyway 

 she backed away again and I ventured, in spite of crackling 

 twigs, to go a step or two nearer. 



The breeze there had been as I came up to them had died 

 entirely away, and there was a dead calm, with a suspicion of 

 eddies the wrong way. The elephants felt for scent with their 

 trunks, and suddenly turned and ran the other way. I was 

 after them instantly ; and, as my cow was the last and they 

 only got slowly through the jungle at first, in a few strides I 

 was within a few yards of her stern, meaning to give her a 

 shot in that quarter and try at least to cripple her. But 

 before I could do so she suddenly rounded on me with a 

 scream, having clearly heard me following and meaning to 

 charge. But before she was well round I had put a bullet in 

 her temple, which felled her, to my great relief and joy. As 

 she struggled on the ground I gave her the other barrel in her 



