ELEPHANT HUNTING 
263 
the shambas, abutilon tips, and bark, and especially the 
twigs, leaves, and white blossoms of a smaller shrub. The 
tusks weighed a little over a hundred pounds the pair. 
We still needed a cow for the museum; and a couple 
of days later, at noon, a party of natives brought in word 
that they had seen two cows in a spot five miles away. 
Piloted by a naked spearman, whose hair was done into a 
cue, we rode toward the place. For most of the distance 
we followed old elephant trails, in some places mere tracks 
beaten down through stiff grass which stood above the 
head of a man on horseback, in other places paths rutted 
deep into the earth. We crossed a river, where monkeys 
chattered among the tree tops. On an open plain we saw 
a rhinoceros cow trotting off with her calf. At last we came 
to a hill-top with, on the summit, a noble fig-tree, whose 
giant limbs were stretched over the palms that clustered 
beneath. Here we left our horses and went forward on 
foot, crossing a palm-fringed stream in a little valley. From 
the next rise we saw the backs of the elephants as they 
stood in a slight valley, where the rank grass grew ten or 
twelve feet high. It was some time before we could see the 
ivory so as to be sure of exactly what we were shooting. 
Then the biggest cow began to move slowly forward, and 
we walked nearly parallel to her, along an elephant trail, 
until from a slight knoll I got a clear view of her at a dis¬ 
tance of eighty yards. As she walked leisurely along, almost 
broadside to me, I fired the right barrel of the Holland 
into her head, knocking her flat down with the shock; and 
when she rose I put a bullet from the left barrel through 
her heart, again knocking her completely off her feet; 
and this time she fell permanently. She was a very old 
