60 THE ELEPHANT 



than a few minutes, they began to appear 70 or 80 

 yards away, and nothing I have ever seen before 

 or since in the wilds of Africa ever equalled the 

 grandeur of the sight they presented. They 

 appeared to glide noiselessly out of the rushes, 

 and, looking black and massive in the moonlight, 

 the vast rounded forms came almost straight 

 towards me, quietly, and without any appearance 

 of haste. It was ghostly, unreal, weird. I edged 

 quietly away to get more on the flank as the dark 

 mass drew slowly nearer. At that moment a 

 loud, shrill trumpet screamed out from some- 

 where to my right, and, glancing up, I saw that 

 all the foremost of the elephants had wheeled 

 round and, with trunks aloft and ears extended, 

 were gazing in the direction of my tent. There 

 was one moment of hesitation, and the next they 

 had, as it seemed, disappeared. They simply 

 appeared to melt away, and the only sign which 

 marked their progress was an occasional crash 

 far off in the forest as they dashed away in full 

 flight. I never fired a shot, and, although as soon 

 as it was light I took up their spoor, I never saw 

 them again. I have no doubt that whilst I was 

 anxiously waiting for them to pass me, one of 

 those exasperating, light, variable currents of 

 baffling air so common in the high forest country, 

 had betrayed the whereabouts of my hidden 

 carriers. The effect was instantaneous. Such 

 are the heartrending disappointments for which 

 the hunter of elephants must be prepared. 



I used to suppose that there was no reason 

 why African elephants could not, in course of time, 



