ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA 
CHAP. 
188 
cultivate), I know not. We rushed about from then (about 
r P.M.) till sundown, always following clumps of the enormous 
herd from one part of the bush to another, mostly in the dense 
scrub where the ground was wet and often muddy and it was 
only possible to get about by following the network of paths. 
The elephants, broken up into small parties, kept moving 
about, sometimes standing for a little and then dashing off 
again, but not all leaving the neighbourhood, so that we never 
had to go very far from where I commenced the attack. Most 
of the shots were running ones, and I fired a great many more 
cartridges than necessary—though I doubt if any elephants 
went away wounded, as it was mostly at those already hit that 
I wasted my ammunition. I confess I got too excited that 
day (contrary to my general practice), and have no doubt that, 
had I kept cooler, I should have killed more elephants and 
used fewer cartridges. 
Well, in the midst of this very warm work—the crashing 
of elephants, stampeding through the thicket, sounding now in 
one direction and now in another—I had just fired a shot (a 
good one I believed) at one which passed near me full split, 
as I ran to try to cut it off along a path, when Squareface 
called my attention to the noise made by another portion of 
the herd, forcing its way through the thick jungle on the other 
side of use Now, I am deaf of my right ear, and, owing to 
that, am unable to tell which direction a sound comes from ; 
consequently, I have to trust chiefly to my attendants as to 
that. I ran towards the point indicated, as quickly as the 
zigzag, obstructed passages would allow, ducking sometimes 
under overhanging boughs, at others jumping over broken 
branches. I had just come out into a more open narrow path, 
which ran at right angles to the way I had been coming, as 
some of the elephants were tearing through the bush just 
beyond, in a direction parallel with the path I had just got 
into. I could see the bushes swaying, and a bit of an elephant 
here and there, as they crashed through, only a few yards 
