102 
ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA 
CHAP. 
wear clothes of a reddish-brown colour—often using a decoc¬ 
tion of mimosa bark to stain them if too light -—• thus re¬ 
sembling the colour of many tree trunks ; and when standing 
motionless (the wind being favourable) I think an elephant 
takes one, so disguised, for a dry stump. I waited anxiously 
for her to give me a chance, at the same time noticing that two 
or three others, which I could see indistinctly behind her, 
seemed all smaller ; so that, though my vis-a-vis' tusks were not 
large, I decided she must be my victim. She once or twice 
offered to approach me, and once actually came, head up, ears 
stretched out, to within five or six yards at most. I stood firm, 
having inwardly sworn not to spoil this chance by hurried or 
nervous shooting, and ready, should she come right on, to give 
her a shot in the chest and jump aside, though my object in 
waiting was the hope of getting a chance for a temple shot, 
knowing that if I succeeded in that, dropping her dead on the 
spot (as can only be done by a shot in the brain), the others 
might probably stand and give me a chance with my second 
barrel. She, however, hesitated, her courage seeming to fail her 
at the last moment, or she was not sure what I was ; anyway 
she backed away again and I ventured, in spite of crackling 
twigs, to go a step or two nearer. 
The breeze there had been as I came up to them had died 
entirely away, and there was a dead calm, with a suspicion of 
eddies the wrong way. The elephants felt for scent with their 
trunks, and suddenly turned and ran the other way. I was 
after them instantly ; and, as my cow was the last and they 
only got slowly through the jungle at first, in a few strides I 
was within a few yards of her stern, meaning to give her a 
shot in that quarter and try at least to cripple her. But 
before I could do so she suddenly rounded on me with a 
scream, having clearly heard me following and meaning to 
charge. But before she was well round I had put a bullet in 
her temple, which felled her, to my great relief and joy. As 
she struggled on the ground I gave her the other barrel in her 
