THE ELEPHANT 49 



experienced in the case of any other animal, 

 but the strain upon the nerves, produced by 

 long periods of excited expectation, is such as to 

 prove trying to persons of an excitable tempera- 

 ment, for, of a truth, no other pastime of which 

 I have knowledge and experience requires cooler 

 self-possession, or more of the exercise of that 

 inestimable quaUty called presence of mind. 

 It is a sport in which the successes are few 

 compared with the failures, and one wherein 

 there are not many trophies gained which do 

 not recall hours and hours of strenuous toil, of 

 hunger and thirst (especially the latter), of hope 

 deferred, of discouragement bordering upon 

 despair, but all richly, amply atoned for by the 

 hour of success so long in coming. 



The usual practice, upon finding oneself in 

 the haunts of these animals, is to rise some 

 time before dawn and, accompanied by one or 

 more good hxmters experienced in tracking them, 

 and several additional reliable followers armed 

 with knives and axes for cutting out the tusks, 

 set out in quest of fresh spoor. If you are 

 fortunate, and recent traces — ^that is to say, 

 tracks of four or five hours old — ^be crossed, 

 these would be quite good enough to follow, and 

 should as a rule bring you up to where the 

 animal may be fovmd resting by ten or eleven 

 o'clock. At this time the sun's warmth, even 

 in winter, becomes considerable, and the ele- 

 phants, disliking heat intensely, having fed 

 through the night and drunk at dawn, are now 

 disposed to rest. For this purpose they usually 



