88 
ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA 
CHAP. 
many times, I was invariably unlucky, and during the time I 
waited for the return of my men I never killed one ; I got 
chances two or three times, but in every case I failed to score 
for one reason or another. Twice I did get shots, though 
indifferent ones, but both got away. The bush is dense and 
thorny and of great extent, and the elephants are never found 
except in the thickest parts, while I and the Ndorobos had to 
get used to each other’s ways and style of hunting. I also 
wasted much of my time in hunting for meat for my men, 
which kept me pretty hard worked, as game had to be sought 
a considerable distance away. To give an example : one day 
some of my Ndorobo friends brought me word that there were 
some elephants in a valley some distance to the north. I was 
off with them first thing next morning, taking some of my men 
to carry a few necessaries to enable me to sleep out, but no 
tent. On the way I shot at and broke the shoulder of an 
oryx, and my little dog brought it to bay ; but before I could 
get up to give it another shot she came back to me, letting it 
away, and it got into thick bush and was unfortunately lost. 
Farther on I killed a gazelle, though, which sufficed to keep 
the wolf from the door for that day. 
After leaving the extra men with my things at a little 
spring at the head of the valley containing the bush where the 
elephants were said to be, I went on with the two Ndorobo 
guides and my gunbearers to look for them. We found the 
spoor of a small herd of cows and calves, and, after much 
trouble, at length got close to them. But the wind was fickle, 
and, as is so often the case in these dense bushes under the 
hills, came in provoking eddies, and before we could get up 
to them they had got our wind and were already in full 
retreat, and, though we followed some distance, all the satis¬ 
faction I got was a glimpse of them making off, without the 
chance of a shot, for the bush was too dense to allow of my 
running up to them. The next morning I was off again 
early, though feeling rather slack after a bad night, through 
