3S8 ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA chap. 



as of snapping trees, and splashing in the edge of the lake ; so 

 in the morning, after packing up, I sent my gun-bearers along 

 the shore to see if there were any fresh elephant tracks. 

 There were no signs of such, though, so I concluded it must 

 have been hippos disturbing my rest. In consequence of this 

 delay we did not get off till rather later than usual, but it was 

 not a long march to where I intended camping ; and when 

 within a mile or so of the place, we crossed the spoor of three 

 elephants, a little distance apart, going down to the water, two 

 being large bulls, the third a cow. 



I had succeeded so well on my last hunt, attended by 

 Juma only, that I determined to pursue the same tactics 

 to-day, in the hope that our luck might continue ; so Square- 

 face was given command of the " safari," with orders to form 

 camp at the spot agreed upon and make all snug against my 

 return. We found, on taking up the spoor, that the elephants, 

 after drinking, had returned from the lake and made away 

 inland. The tracks seemed quite fresh ; and, after following 

 them a short way, we came to where the elephants had stood 

 and dusted themselves at the foot of an ant-heap. Looking 

 beyond, over pretty open country, we caught sight of them, 

 far ahead, on the top of a low, open ridge, apparently feeding. 

 There were four of them, standing out like huge sphinxes on 

 the sky-line. The wind was then blowing from us to them, 

 so we started to make a long circuit, in order to get round 

 to leeward of them, though at present they were too far off 

 to scent us ; but soon it became shifty, and sometimes died 

 away, and we stopped to see which way it would settle down 

 to blow from. After a while it came up — in gusts first, but 

 finally as a good, stiff, steady breeze — from the usual south- 

 east quarter. This was exactly favourable for us, so we went 

 on, and got within two or three hundred yards without any 

 difficulty or risk of alarming our game, and waited again to 

 reconnoitre. 



Up to this point there had been sufficient thin bush to 



