190 
ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA 
CHAP. 
jungle near where I had shot it. In doing so, I came upon 
two or three elephants standing in a thick place, and had to 
retreat and go round, leaving them so, for I had not another 
cartridge for either of the rifles. 
It being now dusk, we started on our long tramp back to 
camp, without having found my first bull. I did not consider 
I had done as well as I ought to have (even allowing for one 
or two elephants we had not found), considering the amount of 
ammunition expended and the wonderful chance I had had at 
this great herd in (for Central Africa) comparatively easy 
ground. But I excused myself, to a certain extent, in that I 
was out of health, having fever on me and being overwrought, 
as I never now got a refreshing night nor had a healthy 
appetite ; and, if it had not been that we kept crossing and 
recrossing the stream and so could get water frequently, I 
think the great exertion in the fierce heat would have told on 
me more than it did ; as it was, I had not felt it much, the 
excitement, no doubt, helping to keep me up. Moreover, the 
difficulty of opening my double io-bore after each discharge 
and of extracting the empty cartridges, hampered me greatly ; 
and the annoyance and even danger entailed by one’s rifle 
jamming in a hot corner, with elephants getting up all round, 
may be imagined. 
We , had a good five hours’ hard walk before us. Luckily 
it was full moon. I kept swinging mechanically along at a 
fast pace, though I felt pretty fagged ; but I knew it was 
better not to rest. We heard elephants in one patch of bush 
that we passed on our way. When we were getting near 
camp, our Ndorobo made a mistake about the path. Just in 
the apex where the two valleys join is a little koppie, connected 
with the rest of the hills by a low neck. In the morning we 
had cut this corner, but in the darkness we passed the turn off, 
went right round the base of the koppie, and then went over 
the neck by the same way we had gone in the morning, thus 
getting back into the branch valley again, where we had already 
