70 
THROUGH SOMALILAND AND ABYSSINIA chap. 
three hundred feet high, and strewn with black stones like most 
of the Darnel Plain. Between the river-bed and the precipitous 
edges of the plateau is black stony ground intersected by water- 
courses, and sparsely dotted over with thorn-bushes and a few 
tufts of thin feathery grass, so that there is no cover for an 
elephant to stand in except the reeds bordering the river-bed. 
These are very dense and usually ten feet high, some of the side 
gullies being choked with them, though in the main channel, 
through which a small stream runs, they merely form a fringe 
fifty to one hundred yards wide. Here and there near the edge 
of the reeds grow a few large trees covered with armo creeper, 
on which elephants delight to feed ; the leaves are very green 
and juicy, heart-shaped and thick, having a smooth surface like 
indiarubber. 
Taking with me one camel and two or three men, I at once 
set out for Eil Danan, and after a hot march we struck the 
ivadi at 2 p.m., and followed in the tracks of the two watchmen 
until we found them. Then, after resting for lunch under a 
tree, I went forward with my gunbearer, Deria Hassan, to 
explore the reeds where the elephant had last been seen. After 
some trouble w T e at length saw him standing under a tree on the 
farther side of a belt of reeds forty yards wide. He seemed to 
be a very large bull, and had a fine pair of tusks. Beyond him 
the ground was quite bare. I crept up to the edge of the reeds, 
and getting on the roots of a fallen tree, could see his head 
above them. He was swinging it slowly from side to side and 
looking quietly in my direction, though he did not appear to see 
me. At last he presented his temple, and I fired as well as 
possible from my insecure perch, hitting him a loud smack, 
while Deria Hassan fired from the bank behind me. Instantly 
the beast gave a shrill trumpet and charged, coming straight at 
me through the reeds. Being in the open I did not wait for 
his head to appear, but ran down the edge of the reeds to 
leeward and dropped under a bush, Deria disappearing with 
equal promptitude in the other direction. Then the three horse- 
men, according to previous orders I had given them, rode up, 
and seeing them the elephant turned again into the reeds and 
made off, keeping down the centre of the belt, the horsemen 
riding parallel to him along the outside. I followed on foot at 
best pace, and came up, a mile farther down, just in time to see 
him charge viciously out at the horses, scattering them. This 
manoeuvre was repeated twice, and then the elephant went up a 
