IX EXCURSIONS FROM EL BOGOI 197 



After getting back to my ivory camp, I had a fruitless 

 search for what turned out to be an imaginary elephant, which 

 one of my men said had passed up on the other side of the 

 stream while he was fetching water. Luckily I was getting quite 

 strong again by that time, and so the extra exertion in that 

 most exhausting cover did me no harm. I felt sure that if I 

 had not been so unwell during the few days succeeding my 

 great onslaught on the big herd, I might have picked up a few 

 more, for some stragglers often hang about a neighbourhood 

 for a couple of days after the main body's retreat. By this 

 time, though, I feared they must all have cleared out of the 

 district. I had entertained great hopes of finding more down 

 the river valley, but, as often happens in such cases, my visions 

 of teeming preserves in that direction proved illusory. 



The next morning I sent off two men to^ fetch a couple 

 more donkeys from El Bogoi, to enable us to carry all the 

 ivory with us on our return thither. I also despatched 

 Squareface, with the rest of the porters, for Barasaloi, to bring 

 as much of the ivory from the elephants I had shot there as 

 they could manage, as by this time the tusks would slip out 

 without any chopping, owing to decomposition. Meanwhile, I 

 sent a couple of Ndorobos to look for spoor up the valley of a 

 small tributary stream coming out of the mountains, while 

 I kept only Smiler to potter about with me, and amused 

 myself shooting a few doves and a guinea-fowl or two, for the 

 pot, with my rook rifle. There were numbers of both (the 

 latter of the vulturine as well as the common kind) frequenting 

 the mimosa groves near the river. The Ndorobos found no 

 signs of elephants being about, but picked up a pair of tiny 

 tusks of a calf which had died long ago, and brought them as 

 an offering to me. Squareface and his men got back late at 

 night, with the tusks of seven of the best elephants I had 

 killed on 31st August. 



The ivory proved better than I had expected. Three of 

 the bulls had tusks of about 50 lbs. apiece, which is about the 



