FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND ACRES 181 
Akeley signaled me to shoot. From where I stood 
I could not see the tusks at first, but as his head 
turned more I saw the great white shafts of ivory. 
The visible ivory was evidently about four feet 
long, and indicated that he carried forty or fifty 
pounds of ivory. Then, quicker than a wink, the 
great dark mass was galvanized into motion. He 
darted forward, crashing through the bamboo as 
though it had been a bed of reeds, and in five 
seconds had disappeared. For some moments we 
heard his great form crashing away, farther and 
farther, until it finally died out in the distance. 
It was the first wild elephant I had ever seen, 
and it is photographed on my memory so vividly as 
never to be forgotten. I was more than half glad 
that I had not shot and that he had got away un¬ 
harmed. 
That night we camped in a little circular clear¬ 
ing which the Akeleys called “Tembo Circus,” for 
it was near this same clearing that one of their 
large elephants had been killed three years before, 
and in the clearing the skin had been prepared for 
preservation. All about us stretched the vast forest, 
full of strange night sounds and spectral in the 
darkness. In the morning we awoke in a dense cloud 
and did not break camp until afternoon. Our Ki¬ 
kuyu and Wanderobo guides were sent out with 
promises of liberal backsheesh to find fresh trails, 
but they returned with unfavorable reports, so we 
marched back to the main camp again. 
Thus ended our Kenia elephant experience, for 
