CHAP. IX.] HERD OF ELEPHANTS. 277 



a man's sight in the dusk on a par with that of wild 

 beasts generally ; and it is so portable and manageable 

 an instrument, that I should never lie out watching for 

 animals without one. 



Since my return to England I have often amused 

 myself at night in trying their powers, which certainly 

 are marvellous. At sea they are coming into general 

 use, and more than one naval officer of considerable 

 experience, in chasing slavers, has assured me of 

 their great superiority over the ordinary curpbrous 

 night telescope. Talking of these things, I may 

 add, that a powerfully magnifying telescope is of 

 very little use in tropical Africa; the air is always 

 seething and waving from the heat, so that images 

 are seldom sufficiently distinct to be worth magnifying. 



I generally used the " direct " telescope of my 

 sextant for day purposes ; it is in fact a small single 

 opera-glass, and I liked it very much. 



Elephant shooting was out of the question at 

 'Tounobis for men in our position, without horses and 

 without dogs. The river-bed is perfectly bare, and 

 very Hght in colour, from the quantity of slabs of 

 limestone. I should be extremely sorry to be chased 

 by any animal over it. The Hottentots made such 

 a noise that the elephants onlj^ came down twice whilst 

 I was there ; the first time we ran up to them and 

 fired among then- legs ; there were fourteen in the herd, 

 fine fellows, standing in a row fronting us in the open 

 moonshine. None of us dared go nearer than sixty 

 yards ; we there had the shelter of a low slab in the 

 limestone, but beyond the ground was quite flat. 



