82 



THE DISCOVERY OF LAKE RUDOLF 



seeming to notice us, although we were in the open. Not until 

 he had gone far beyond us did he suddenly turn round and 

 prepare to charge. It would really seem as if elephants looked 

 backwards and sideways rather than forwards, and in this 

 case the fugitive animal suddenly became an angry antagonist, 

 dashing towards us with gigantic strides. It all happened so 

 quickly that the Count hardly had time to reload. I now 

 hastily cocked the 8-bore rifle and fired at the elephant's fore- 

 head, really not hoping to do more than make him swerve 

 aside, but my shot had the best results, for it hit him in the 

 cavity above the trunk, and he fell. 



Later discoveries pointed to the fact that our elephant had 

 just left a rendezvous when he fell a victim to us, for, going a 

 few hundred paces further, we caught sight, between the bushes, 

 of the grey bodies of quite a little herd of elephants. Cautiously 

 we approached nearer, and made out two males, four females, 

 and two half-grown little ones, which had, none of them, been 

 in the least disturbed by the firing going on close by. We 

 were now able to watch the group in all the ease of familiar 

 family life. The mothers grazed, suckling their young now and 

 then, or drove olFthe males if they came too near their ofispring. 

 The young bulls fought for the favour of the fair young females, 

 not using their tusks against each other, but butting with 

 their heads, each trying to push the other away, the struggle 

 going on till the females separated them. 



It is wonderfully interesting to watch these huge and 

 powerful animals in their home life in the solitudes of the forest, 

 the more so, perhaps, that they make absolutely no noise. We 

 could see the shadowy grey forms moving to and fro, lifting up 

 and setting down their huge feet without a sound, though we 

 listened with suspended breath. It seemed as if we ourselves 

 must be suddenly smitten with deafness whilst retaining intact 

 all our other powers, and presently it was borne in upon us, as 



