'84 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Suddenly a cow elephant at the edge of 

 the forest just in front of us uttered her 

 ])eculiar shrill scream of warning. Not 

 < )uly the elephants, but all the other forest 

 folk, paid heed and instantly were silent ; 

 a moment before the noise had been ap- 

 ])alling; the silence now was even more so. 

 Then there came a gentle rustling sound 

 like that of leaves stirred by a breeze, in- 

 creasing in volume until it sounded like 

 a mighty windstorm in the trees. 



I looked about to see whence it came. 

 With my glasses I scoured the forest far 

 and near, but not a visible leaf seemed 

 to stir. Then I realized that the sound 

 was made by elephants on the move, 

 hastening away from danger — the scuf- 

 fling of their feet among the dry leaves 

 on the ground and the scraping of their 

 sides against the equally dry leaves of 

 the bushes. In a way this was even more 

 impressive than the great din or the 

 death-like silence preceding. 



The old cow had caught a whiff of air 

 tainted by man and all obeyed her warn- 

 ing. In a few moments the rustling sub- 

 sided ; the monkeys and birds returned to 

 their normal state. The elephants had 

 evidently settled down without going far ; 

 Ijut only at rare intervals during the rest 

 •of the day did we hear the squeal of a 

 chastised youngster or the breaking of a 

 tree. 



With my gun bearers I went down into 

 the forest. Trails crisscrossed in all di- 

 rections, so that it was impossible to fol- 

 low a given trail any distance. A band 

 of a dozen or so got our wind and passed 

 lis in confusion at close range, but the 

 hush was so dense that I had but small 

 glimpses of them. A mile into the forest 

 Ijrought us to an irregular clearing, 200 

 by 500 yards in extent, almost bisected 

 by a "peninsula" of forest. 



A WARLiKii mothe;r 



At the base of this peninsula I nearly 

 ran against a young bull, one of a con- 

 siderable number, as I soon discovered. 

 The whole herd began working toward 

 the point of the peninsula and I ran along 

 the outer edge to head them off. Just 

 as the leader emerged from the point, 

 they saw or winded us — shifty, uncertain 

 breezes had sprung up — and they turned 



back. I ran into the timber to try for a 

 better view of them. I soon found my- 

 self facing a cow who, solicitous for her 

 very young calf, had wheeled about, all 

 attention and menacing. 



Fortunately, at the moment we were 

 partially screened behind a clump of 

 small trees, and as we remained motion- 

 less the cow's fears were soon allayed, 

 and, turning, she gave the calf a boost 

 with her trunk and followed the herd, 

 which was moving off toward the clear- 

 ing on the other side. 



Hurrying out and around the point, I 

 found the herd in the clearing, rounded 

 up in close formation, conscious of the 

 presence of an unseen enemy. There 

 were about 25 elephants, mostly cows, 

 and just as I was on the point of 

 backing off to a safer distance, thinking 

 there were no big bulls in the lot, a fine 

 pair of tusks appeared at the near side. 

 A clump of bushes offered cover for a 

 near approach and I went in quickly to 

 within 20 yards of him, and as his front 

 leg was thrust forward offering a good 

 opportunity for a heart shot, I fired both 

 barrels of the double rifle in quick suc- 

 cession. 



RliNDKRING FIRST AID 



All was commotion as I seized my 

 second rifle and, seeing that there was 

 no direct charge, retreated some 50 yards 

 to the top of an ant hill, from which I 

 could s'"'^ what was going on. I then 

 witnessed a scene such as I had heard 

 described and wdiich I had been keen to 

 verify. A numder of cows were clus- 

 tered about the bull, for he had fallen 

 30 yards from where he was shot, and 

 with their tusks and trunks were doing 

 their best to get him upon his feet ; the 

 remainder of the cows Were doing patrol 

 duty, rushing about in an increasing cir- 

 cle, searching for the source of trouble. 

 That meant me, so I retired to a safe 

 distance and waited for the atmosphere 

 to clear. 



This bull stood 11 feet 4 inches high 

 at the shoulders, and the tusks weighed 

 95 and no pounds respectively, while 

 the circumference of the front foot 

 around the sole was 67^ inches, the 

 largest recorded, I believe (see photo, 

 page 789). 



