86 



THE DISCOVERY OF LAKE RUDOLF 



the mountain slope where, he said, elephants were in the habit 

 of resting. This was a shallow ravine-like valley, at the 

 bottom of which flowed a rivulet a few inches broad. After 

 an hour and a quarter of arduous climbing we arrived at the 

 edge of the valley, and, looking cautiously down, we spied a 

 big elephant bull taking his mid-day sleep all unconscious of 

 danger. We crept behind a rock scarcely fifteen paces from 

 the elephant though some twenty-four feet above him, where 

 we were apparently in perfect safety and might venture on 

 some trial shots. The Count therefore fired with the 577 Ex- 

 press rifle at the back of the animal's head. Smoke hid the 

 result from our sight, but we heard a trumpet-note ^ and knew, 

 therefore, that the elephant was not dead. The smoke had 

 not yet cleared away, and we were peering down the escarp- 

 ment when all of a sudden the huge form of the elephant 

 loomed up scarcely an arm's length distance from the Count. 

 The animal, a moment before so unconscious of our presence, 

 was now, though still below us, ready for a charge, but at the 

 same instant there was the crash of another shot from Count 

 Teleki. The bullet struck the forehead and the elephant recoiled, 

 but regained its firm footing immediately and dashed forwards. 

 Not until he had received two more bullets from the 8-bore 

 rifle did his strength give way and his rage subside. He fell 

 on his knees, struggled up again, and swerved sideways as he 

 tried to get away. I now gave him a bullet in the skull from 

 my 8-bore rifle, at which he rolled over and down a few feet 

 of the steep slope till arrested in a cleft of the rock. He still 

 struggled for a little while as he lay first on his side, then on 

 his back. We thought our quarry was stricken to death and 

 approached him quite closely to watch his end. We stood 



^ We seldom heard elephants trumpet. The sound is very lite that of an 

 ordinary trumpet, but less shrill, so that it might escape notice. Certain descrip- 

 tions of the shrill trumpeting on every side of herds of elephants did not) in the 

 very least, resemble our experiences. 



