46 
ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA 
CHAP. 
miles, through dense scrub without any water: a tiresome 
and most uninteresting tramp. We started about I P.M. and 
bivouacked for the night at sundown. In the morning we 
started on again with the first streaks of dawn, about five 
o’clock, which was as early as it was possible to proceed, there 
being no moon ; for though the path here is, during the dry 
season when the river is low, well worn, it was now a good 
deal overgrown and consequently impracticable in the dark. 
I went ahead, leaving the caravan to follow at its own pace 
to the river. On the way I came upon signs showing that 
a herd of elephants had been about: the trees were broken 
down in many places, and sometimes the path was obstructed 
by branches they had thrown down ; I noticed, too, that 
these evidences were of various ages, some quite recent, others 
older. 
When getting towards the river, my little dog “ Frolic ” 
chased a troop of baboons in her usual playful way—as I 
could tell by their cries, though the bush was too thick for 
me to see—and I heard her give a yelp. She then came 
running back to me, and I found she had been severely bitten 
in the neck, at which I felt much indignation. But, though 
my poor little favourite seemed dejected, I thought the wounds 
were only skin deep, at first. 
I got to the river by ten o’clock, and, turning off to the 
right through some little open flats bordering the banks, was 
making for a nice spot I knew of a little farther down, where 
was a shady tree to camp under, when I met a wart-hog sow 
with a nearly grown-up family, and had just time to give 
her a shot as she was starting to make off, knocking her over. 
One of the young ones came back towards me, quite close up ; 
but I let them alone, as I had more than enough meat for my 
own larder in the one I had shot, and, as my men would not 
eat pig, I had no use for more. 
The Tana is at this point divided by several islands (one 
or two of them of some extent) into a number of channels. 
