VIII 
EXCURSIONS FROM EL BOGOI 
169 
have deserted it now, for I could not even find any spoor. I 
thought it strange that there was still no news from Lesiat, and 
began to suspect that Lorgete had not really sent him word, 
as he had promised to do, of my arrival. I, however, took no 
further steps then to ascertain ; and, on Lorgete coming'in the 
morning to show me his elephants—though not what I call 
early (by which I mean before it is fully light)—we went out. 
He took me a long tramp, more towards the Seya River than I 
had ever known elephants to be before, and we found none 
to-day. We saw a little spoor of odd ones, but did not follow it, 
as we were hoping to find the herd. It seldom pays to follow 
single elephants, as they go on, as a rule, till they find their friends, 
it may be far away. 
In the afternoon we saw some giraffe towards the river, 
on a lower level than we were, standing in a peculiar kind 
of jungle, composed, not of thorny bushes, but of spreading 
clumps of a sort of shrub with long, thin interlacing stems. 
I managed, with considerable difficulty, to stalk to within fair 
shot of them, having to descend a stony, scrubby hillside ; 
but the jungle was high enough to cover the greater part of 
their bodies, so that I could not see the vital spots. I was 
particularly anxious to get meat for the sake of my guides, 
for though I had given Lorgete some food to take home for his 
children, he and his companions said they were hungry, and 
that they had not strength to go after elephants until they had 
had a good feed of meat. They always do say that. So I 
tried to shoot one, but, to my disgust, only succeeded in wound¬ 
ing it, on account of the difficulty of judging through the foliage 
where the proper spot to shoot at was. In long jungle it is 
generally best to shoot a giraffe in the neck ; as, if the bullet 
strikes the vertebrae, it of course drops on the spot. Un¬ 
happily, I did not do that in this case, and the giraffe went 
off badly hit. I hoped still to bag it, though ; but following a 
little way, without, however, sighting the wounded beast again, 
we suddenly came upon one in thick scrub, quite close. At 
