196 ADVENTURES IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



It was now wearing on toward morning : the moon 

 was low and the sky was cloudy ; and feeling very 

 sleepy, I set the two Bakalahari to watch while I lay 

 down to rest. Carey was already enjoying a sound 

 sleep, and snoring loudly. I had lain nearly an hour, 

 and was neither waking nor sleeping, when the Bakala- 

 hari whispered, " Clou toona, macoa," which signifies 

 " Bull elephants, white man." I sat up on my kaross, 

 and beheld three old bulls approaching from the west. 

 At this moment there was a death-like calm in the 

 atmosphere, and the sky looked very threatening all 

 along the mountain range which bounds this favorite 

 elephant district on the southwest. I greatly feared 

 a thunder-storm. Suddenly a breeze came whistling 

 from the mountains, and gave these three elephants our 

 wind. We then left the fountain and held to our wag- 

 ons, where we slept till the sun rose. 



When the sun rose I proceeded with the Bakalahari 

 to inspect the spoors of the wounded elephants. I was 

 struck with astonishment when I thought over our 

 night's sport : nine times had first-rate old bull ele- 

 phants come up to drink, and we had fired at eight of 

 these at distances of from six to ten yards, with cool, 

 steady rests. Two of them lay dead beside the fount- 

 ain ; another had a broken leg, and could not escape ; 

 and the only one which we imagined had escaped was 

 the biiU with the wide-set tusks, which we both felt 

 certain was wounded too far back in the body. The 

 event, however, proved that our expectations were in- 

 correct, for that afternoon we found this princely ele- 

 phant lying dead very near our kraal. Both our shots 

 were very far bacsk, wounding him somewhere about 

 the kidneys. We never saw any thing of the four 

 other elephants shot by us. The bull with the broken 



