AFTER ELEPHANT AT BARINGO 
69 
•450 (an old black-powder rifle) before losing sight. I 
had thus placed one ball in the left, four in the right 
side of his head, Archer one in the latter part and one 
in the forehead—seven in all. No effect whatever was 
produced, so far as we saw. But our men, who now 
climbed into trees, at once reported that the beast was 
going very sick, and, a minute later, that he had 
stopped altogether. This we soon verified for ourselves, 
seeing him at a standstill among the long grass some 
300 yards distant. 
What should we do now? Never again, after this 
experience, would I follow him up in that fearful 
grass, where he has one as in a trap, for a man cannot 
move a yard to right or left, whereas an elephant goes 
through it as if walking in a meadow. We decided on 
a policy of “ masterly inactivity,” leaving the wounded 
elephant to die quietly (as we hoped) where he stood, 
our scouts being posted in trees to watch him, while we 
proceeded to have our lunch. 
Presently our elephant slowly moved into some very 
heavy thorn-jungle beyond. How he crossed the deep 
donga of the Tigerish River (which we had to swim 
a second time) we could not see. Here we had a bit of 
bad luck. Probably our trackers pressed on too fast; 
anyway the beast retreated on his heel-tracks, and we 
lost an hour before recovering the spoor behind us. 
He now left the grass-forest and entered a stretch of 
thick, low thorn-scrub, most laborious and painful to 
traverse. The day was far spent, and of intense heat 
and hard going I had had enough, and returned to camp 
at four o’clock. Archer followed on, first into the 
swampy ground adjoining Lake Baringo, thence wheel- 0 
ing to the left as the spoor turned due west, as if the 
wounded beast meant to seek refuge in the Kamasea 
Mountains, which closed the horizon some six miles 
away. In that case we knew he was lost to us. Next 
day, however, the tracks showed that he had not dared 
to face the mountains, but had held to the south some 
twenty miles down the valley, where he had entered a 
