II 
ON THE JAMBENI RANGE 
37 
We went on to leeward of where we had heard the 
elephants and got into a tall, leafy undergrowth, though 
not very dense, and soon came out into a swamp bordered 
by tall “ fever ” and other trees with a little open between : 
a very ideal elephant haunt. We were uncertain now of 
the exact whereabouts of the elephants, so proceeded very 
cautiously up wind towards where we supposed them to be ; 
and before we had got far into the jungle, after leaving the 
swamp, we made one out. I then took my double .577 and 
leaving the men, approached stealthily quite close to the one 
we had first seen, till there was nothing between me and it 
but a smallish tree (through the fork of which I looked) and 
a little thin jungle. Great colonies of weaver birds, thronging 
the bush, made a great din with both voices and wings, with 
a rather confusing effect. It was a cow ; a big one, though 
her tusks were not large. I could now make out two or three 
others (apparently also cows) beyond, and I knew there were 
pretty certain to be more I could not see ; but there was no 
possible chance of getting farther without disturbing the 
nearest, so I determined to shoot her if I could. I should 
mention that it was now fully four months since I started 
from the coast on this expedition, the expenses of which were 
heavy, and these were the first elephants I had come across : 
so I was not inclined to risk failure through trying to pick 
and choose. She was, however, facing me, her great ears 
stretched out or slowly flapping. I could only see her head 
and my object was to get a temple shot. I waited, I think, 
not less than a quarter of an hour for her to turn her head. 
Once I tried to sneak round farther, but she and another 
next to her started and I slunk back. I suppose an eddy 
of wind gave them a slight whiff of me, or they may have 
heard me moving; probably the latter, as they were not 
sufficiently alarmed to move when I kept still again. I was 
not more than ten paces from the one in front of me, I should 
say, and meditated the advisability of putting my bullet right 
