348 
AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 
work puzzling it out where the animals had scattered out 
and loitered along feeding. The trail led up and down 
hills and through open thorn scrub, and it crossed and 
recrossed the wooded watercourses in the bottoms of the 
valleys. At last, after going some ten miles we' came on 
sign where the elephants had fed that morning, and four 
or five miles further on we overtook them. That we did 
not scare them into flight was due to Tarlton. The trail 
went nearly across wind; the trackers were leading us 
swiftly along it, when suddenly Tarlton heard a low trumpet 
ahead and to the right hand. We at once doubled back, 
left the horses, and advanced toward where the noise in¬ 
dicated that the herd was standing. 
In a couple of minutes we sighted them. It was just 
noon. There were six cows, and two well-grown calves— 
these last being quite big enough to shift for themselves or 
to be awkward antagonists for any man of whom they 
could get hold. They stood in a clump, each occasionally 
shifting its position or lazily flapping an ear; and now and 
then one would break off a branch with its trunk, tuck it 
into its mouth, and withdraw it stripped of its leaves. The 
wind blew fair, we were careful to make no noise, and with 
ordinary caution we had nothing to fear from their eyesight. 
The ground was neither forest nor bare plain; it was cov¬ 
ered with long grass and a scattered open growth of small 
scantily leaved trees, chiefly mimosas, but including some 
trees covered with gorgeous orange-red flowers. After 
careful scrutiny we advanced behind an ant-hill to within 
sixty yards, and I stepped forward for the shot. 
Akeley wished two cows and a calf. Of the two best 
cows one had rather thick, worn tusks; those of the other 
