ELEPHANT HUNTING 
249 
with Spanish moss; trees whose surfaces were corrugated 
and knotted as if they were made of bundles of great creep¬ 
ers; and giants whose buttressed trunks were four times a 
man’s length across. 
Twice we got on elephant spoor^ once of a single bull, 
once of a party of three. Then Cuninghame and the 
’Ndorobo redoubled their caution. They would minutely 
examine the fresh dung; and above all they continually 
tested the wind, scanning the tree tops, and lighting matches 
to see from the smoke what the eddies were near the ground. 
Each time after an hour’s stealthy stepping and crawling 
along the twisted trail a slight shift of the wind in the al¬ 
most still air gave our scent to the game, and away it went 
before we could catch a glimpse of it; and we resumed our 
walk. The elephant paths led up hill and down—for the 
beasts are wonderful climbers—and wound in and out in 
every direction. They were marked by broken branches 
and the splintered and shattered trunks of the smaller 
trees, especially where the elephant had stood and fed, 
trampling down the bushes for many yards around. Where 
they had crossed the marshy valleys they had punched big 
round holes, three feet deep, in the sticky mud. 
As evening fell we pitched camp by the side of a little 
brook at the bottom of a ravine, and dined ravenously on 
bread, mutton, and tea. The air was keen, and under our 
blankets we slept in comfort until dawn. Breakfast was 
soon over and camp struck; and once more we began our 
cautious progress through the dim, cool archways of the 
mountain forest. 
Two hours after leaving camp we came across the fresh 
trail of a small herd of perhaps ten or fifteen elephant 
