348 ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA chap. 



I had decided to pack up and march with the whole of my 

 outfit, as usual when travelling, instead of merely taking my 

 gun-bearers, as when hunting with the intention of returning to 

 the same camp. My reason for this was, that, being still so 

 weak, it was important to camp as near as possible to the scene 

 of action ; and as it would be necessary in any case to follow 

 along the shore till either the elephants themselves or the 

 place where they had drunk should be found, I thought it 

 better to have all my belongings with me in the meantime, so 

 that I might have as short a walk as possible after the hunt. 

 We started at five o'clock, which is about the hour when the 

 first glimmerings of dawn become manifest in that latitude, and 

 in half an hour, while still dusk, saw an elephant looming black 

 in the water near the shore of the lake, ahead of us. I took 

 the caravan a little way back, and left them among some " suaki " 

 bushes with strict injunctions to keep quiet, while I went after 

 the elephant with Juma carrying the .303 and Squareface with 

 my camera. I never got a shot with the latter, and the one 

 I had with the rifle was a failure ! 



The elephant — we could only see one, a big bull — had by 

 this time come up from the lake and was strolling slowly through 

 the open bush, a party of white egrets riding, in picturesque 

 contrast to the dark hulk, on his neck and head. When we 

 got to where he had entered a patch of thicker bush and 

 become hidden, we took his spoor. The sun had just risen and 

 was in our eyes ; it was my first attempt at elephant since my 

 mauling and consequent long illness, and I was not as cool as 

 I was wont to be, and as one ought to be to kill this game. 

 These preparatory excuses are leading up to the confession 

 that when we caught sight of the bull again, although the bush 

 was not very thick compared with what I had thought nothing 

 of before, I was in too much of a hurry to shoot, without 

 waiting for a good chance or getting nearly so close as I had 

 always been in the habit of approaching before firing. The 

 consequence of all this was, that, though I thought at first that 



