Elephants 



did so. Reloading my magazine, I fired at the second and 

 third bull, and eventually the three of them, being unable 

 to escape, feU to my rifle. By this time the remainder of 

 the plunging herd, being bogged deeper than ever, were 

 bunched up in groups, and there I left them. When we turned 

 up in the morning to cut up the three elephants the others 

 had gone, having managed to pull themselves out of the 

 marsh in the night. 



By reason of its unwonted setting this episode remains 

 in my mind as one of the most exciting I can remember. 

 Many others occur to me as I sit writing, but which will 

 have to wait for some other occasion — some sad, some cruel, 

 some laughable, others again so exciting that they still 

 have the power to thrill ; days when the water was all 

 finished and such a terrible thirst assailed one that one was 

 glad to cut open the water-stomach of an elephant and take 

 a drink or make tea with the insipid fluid ; days again when 

 one was drenched through to the skin and the wood being 

 wet, one had to sleep as best one could in damp clothes ; 

 dull days of fever ; delicious days of splendid health ; in 

 other words, the storm and sunshine of a hunter's life. 



247 



