144 
IN AFRICA 
testinal rumbling, nor crash of tusks against small 
trees were heard. Finally, at about eleven o’clock, 
Tarlton, who, strangely enough, is partly deaf, 
heard a sound that caused the hunting party to stop 
short. He heard elephants. They were undoubt¬ 
edly only a short distance ahead, but as the wind 
was from their direction there was little likelihood 
that they had heard the approach of the hunters. 
So Tarlton, who has had much experience in ele¬ 
phant hunting, led the party off at a right angle 
from the elephant trail and then, turning, paralleled 
the trail a few hundred feet away. They had gone 
only a short distance when it became evident that 
they had passed the herd, which was hidden by the 
tall grass and the thickly-growing scrub trees that 
grew on all sides. 
The wooded character of the country rendered it 
easy to stalk the elephant herd, and with careful 
attention to the wind, the four hunters and their 
gunbearers advanced under cover until the ele¬ 
phants could be seen and studied. Each of the 
four hunters carried a large double-barreled cordite 
rifle that fires a five-hundred-grain bullet, backed 
up by nearly a hundred grains of cordite. 
As was expected, the herd consisted solely of 
cows and calves. There were eight cow elephants 
and two totos , or calves, a circumstance that was 
particularly fortunate, as Colonel Roosevelt was 
expected to secure one or two cows for the group, 
while some one else was to get the calf. 
For some moments the hunting party studied 
