IN SEARCH OF BIG GAME, 
57 
"by keeping to bis tracks of yesterday, and on the off chance 
that he mi^lit be hanging about somewhere in the vicinity of 
the herd and that by following them we might cut liis tracks 
I decided to go after the herd. It was a chance in a hundred 
but it came off. We had crossed two small streams and 
climbed two low hills when we found the tracks of the big bulL 
He had crossed the direction taken by the berd at right angles, 
having it appeared passed that way about half an hour before. 
Here indeed was the "Luck of the Sulphate of Zinc,*' 
The ground was verj- soft ami the tracks looked enormous. 
In half an bnur— we passed the herd fortunately to leeward - 
we heard him. I told \Yun Hadji that he bad better stop 
where he was and Yasin and I proceeded. I bad seen that 
Wan Hadji was too excited when close to game to be anything 
but a nuisance when one was manceuvring for a shot. We 
soon saw our quarry, be was moving slowl}- through the jungle 
going straight wa\' from ns, and his huge hulk looked like a 
bouse as he forced his way ab>ng with that statelinessand deli- 
beration which is I think a peculiar characteristic of a wild 
elephant. Time svas getting on and we found ourselves still 
following his tail 1 could see no likely place where we could 
cut iiito the undergrowth and get round in front of him. 
Presently be came to lower ground and turned away from the 
direction he bad been following. We were about thirty yards 
away from bim. Approaching a bttle closer I noticed a large 
clump of bamboos which was attracting his attention. Still 
we had not seen his tusks. It took us a quarter of an hour 
before we had a gtvod view of his head and tusks, and then all 
doubt vanished. He was ver}' anxious to obtain some particu- 
lar bamboo shoot which appeared to be in the centre of the 
clump, consequently his head was buried in the bamboo to 
such an extent that it was impossible to see any of it. His 
trurtk climbed up amongst the topmost bamboos like some 
huge snake, felt about for a good bold, then he barked his 
entire body. But the bamboo \\ouId not break. He loosened 
his bold, caught the bamboo lower down, and we saw bis head 
turn slowly over to one side to bring the great muscles of bis 
neck into play. With a sounding report the bamboo broke. 
Then we saw his yellow gleaming tusks, which looked re- 
markably thick but*^ were decidedly short for such a large 
elephant- He turned round tn go to the far cud of the bamboo 
to feed off the leaves and in doing this exposed his entire head 
to my view. We were soon standing round him and I have 
never seen a bigger elephant, I called to Wan Hadji, who 
bad not remained very long where I told him to stop, appear- 
ing from behind a tree before my halloo had died away, and 
