Trail and Camp-Fire 



The desire for more shooting now over- 

 came my principles, and my shikari, who was 

 rather disgusted with the photographing part 

 of the morning's work, hurried on to the open 

 plain, where the elephants stood facing us, 

 having halted at the cries of some of my men 

 who had headed them. What appeared near 

 enough for me, did not satisfy my shikari at 

 all, and we kept on toward the herd until 

 even he was willing to stop, and I knew him 

 well enough by this time to be sure that a 

 further advance was out of place. I fired at 

 the biggest one we could pick out of the herd 

 of twelve or more, as they stood head on. 

 Up went their trunks and ears, and trumpet- 

 ing, they charged us. There was a long 

 stretch to cover before we came to sloping 

 ground, and no bushes or trees ; but, separat- 

 ing, to distract the elephants, we managed by 

 hard running, made tiresome by my 1 6-pound 

 eight-bore, to reach the incline before they 

 came up to us. As they lost sight of us, and 

 could not get our wind, the elephants stopped 

 and filed off rapidly on one side. This en- 

 abled me to place another bullet behind the 

 shoulder of the leader of the procession — the 

 same big elephant I had just shot at, and who 



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