48 
ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST A ERICA 
CHAP. 
It being now late, I thought it a suitable time to knock off, 
so made tracks for camp. I afterwards regretted not having 
gone on as long as there was any daylight ; as I heard (what I 
did not know at the time) that a big bull, which I had been 
told was in the herd but had not seen, was caught sight of by 
a native with me just when I shot the last elephant One 
ought never to give up while there is a chance of scoring 
another when hunting for ivory. Still I had not done so badly 
for that day : though my teeth were not large they were nice 
“ kalashas,” and a better average size than those I had got two 
days before. My men, too, were very pleased and jubilant 
that our luck had turned, and that we were at last really doing 
some good work. To make elephant-hunting pay in Eastern 
Equatorial Africa is no easy matter; the expenses of an expedi¬ 
tion are so heavy, owing to the enormous cost of transport and 
the necessity of taking a large number of porters both for this 
purpose and also for safety ; the distances, too, are so great, 
and so much time is cut to waste in travelling and inevitable 
delays from various causes. The uncertainty of animal trans¬ 
port is sufficiently shown by the fact that I had only a single 
survivor (and it afterwards died) left out of upwards of twenty 
pack donkeys! As to trade, nowhere I have yet reached is there 
any profit to be made by a white man ; Swahili and Wakamba 
traders have spoilt it. Moreover, ivory trading is a tedious, 
pottering process, far better suited to the Swahili than the 
English temperament; especially in a climate where activity 
is (in my experience) the great essential in preserving good 
health, while stagnation means fever. 
The next day we cut out the tusks. Of course the 
elephants had cleared out. I tried to get information as to 
where the herd had gone to, and word was brought that it had 
gone down a stream that ran through the forest in which I 
had found it, in the direction of the Gwaso Nyiro River ; so I 
determined to go in search again on the morrow, notwith¬ 
standing that my feet were still very sore and that I was 
