228 
ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA 
CHAP. 
elephant news. He told me then that there was a small troop 
of bulls about, and that they had been seen yesterday not far 
from here. He slept at my camp, so as to be ready to go out 
early with me on the morrow. By sunrise we were well on the 
way towards the part where he thought the herd might probably 
be, as he was familiar, from life-long experience, with their 
favourite haunts when in the neighbourhood. 
Before long fresh spoor showed that he was right in his 
calculations. We did not, however, follow it, but made for a 
high rocky koppie not far off, which we proceeded to climb. 
As I reached the summit, Lorgete, who had preceded me, 
beckoned me to follow him on to a rock free from bushes. I 
could see by his smile of satisfaction and the excited look in 
his eyes that he had already made out elephants, and on 
reaching his side I too saw at once—without the help of his 
eager clutch of my arm and demonstrative pointing—the tops 
of the heads and backs, and the upper parts of the slowly 
flapping ears, of several elephants, visible, from our point of 
vantage, among the bush a little beyond. Our perch on the 
top of this abrupt, conical hill completely overlooked the 
dense jungle, which lay spread below us in all directions, 
for some distance. The greater part of it was thorny scrub, 
some ten or twelve feet in height, but in some places were 
clumps of bushy thorn-trees through which we could not 
see. 
As I carefully scanned the bush all about and beyond the 
elephants I had first caught sight of, gradually another and 
another became defined as it waved its huge ears or moved out 
of the shadow of a tree with which its dusky form had been 
blended. 1 thus made out eight, all big bulls as their broad 
foreheads and massive outlines made at once apparent. 
“ YAtok ” (big), whispered Lorgete, with tremendous emphasis on 
the last syllable,—holding out his spear to indicate exaggerated 
length, and then putting his hands, spread, in the position of 
grasping, wide apart on each side of his thigh, by way of 
