Ill 
CAMPING AT MOUNT KEN I A 
69 
recently dropped dung. We followed the now quite fresh 
spoor eagerly though cautiously ; and after puzzling it out with 
the greatest care and no little trouble, owing to the abominably 
bad going, for some distance farther, we at length heard that 
solemn rumbling of the great animal’s stomach which is more 
moving to the hunter’s soul than the grandest organ peal. 
Leaving my men now, I picked my steps, with fearful anxiety, 
through the jagged, loose lumps of lava rock towards the spot 
whence the sound came, and caught sight of one of the great 
beasts, a little ahead, moving slowly to the right. 
It was a still morning, the sun intensely hot, and the air 
stirred slightly, sometimes one way and sometimes another. As 
I approached nearer, with every effort to avoid being heard or 
seen, I noticed this elephant to have but small tusks, so refrained 
from shooting in hopes of getting a chance at a better ; but 
immediately it showed signs of alarm (having probably got a 
whiff of my wind) and began to make off. Looking ahead of it 
I saw two others standing by a large thorn-tree : one a fine, large 
female with nice teeth, the other smaller. I saw no time was 
to be lost, so hurried after the first, got near before the others had 
realised what was the matter, knocked over the big one, and then 
let the first have a shot in the back as she retreated, partly 
maiming her, with my second barrel. Reloading instantly, I, 
as she shuffled off, got a slanting shot at her head and dropped 
her dead. Noticing, as I ran past, the first still kicking on the 
ground, I thought it a wise precaution to give her another 
bullet right in the centre of the top of her head. Seeing the 
blood run from the hole just in the spot I intended, I left her for 
secure to follow the remaining cow. She turned and held 
up her head to discover the cause of alarm, standing diagonally 
with her head towards me. I think I had better perhaps have 
given her a body shot, as the ground was fairly open ; but 
thinking to reach her brain through the eye I aimed for that. 
With a shake of her head, however, she made off again. When 
my gunbearers came up we found a little blood on the spoor of 
