III BIG GAME SHOOTING, 1887 63 
elephant, and began walking swiftly out into the reeds. There 
was no time to be lost if I wanted those big white tusks, so 
aiming quickly as he moved, I fired the heavy rifle at the root of 
his ear, hiting him just a little too far back. A fiendish change 
came over him, until now so calm and solemn. Out went his 
great ears, and with his trunk curled up tightly in front of his 
chest, giving a shrill trumpet he raised his head and went crash- 
ing through the dry reeds, going up the river-bed and presenting 
his side to us. Aiming for the shoulder, I again fired, and 
struck him fairly in the ribs; this turned him across the river 
straight away from our bank, and he dropped into the wake of 
the three cows, which on hearing the shots had left the palm- 
tree in alarm, and were already sailing away through the reeds 
in fine style. 
I was still very lame, and until the mule came up had to 
content myself with watching the game disappear into the forest 
on the farther side of the river. While they were crossing the 
reeds the wounded bull gave an occasional squeal and charged 
off at a tangent, pounding imaginary foes, and looking the 
picture of annoyance. As the four elephants disappeared among 
the trees they were joined by two strings of cows and young 
ones which we had not seen before, followed by two very large 
tuskers. I felt that I had made a mess of the business, and 
regretted then that we had left the horses in camp, as they 
would have been most useful in turning the elephants. We had 
to wait some minutes for my mule to be brought up, and it was 
9 a.m. before we took up the tracks of the wounded elephant. 
The sun was beginning to get very powerful, making doubly 
hard the work of advancing over the masses of fallen reeds 
which obstructed the ground even in the path made by the 
elephants. The tracking, however, was not difficult, as a wide 
lane had been opened through the reeds, everywhere bespattered 
with blood. When we reached the forest on the farther side of 
the river the blood had almost ceased, and following became a 
difficult matter, as the footsteps of the wounded elephant were 
becoming mingled with those of the other two bulls. It was 
dreadfully hot, and for inore than two hours we toiled along 
over aloes and thorns and through tree-jungles, covering about 
six miles of ground before we again sighted our game. 
The herd was standing taking shelter from the mid-day sun 
under three large trees which grew close together, and we 
advanced to the attack. We could not make out the wounded 
