70 
ON SAFARI 
huge morass, a league in diameter, choked with reeds 
and flags, and with water three to four feet deep— 
possibly far more—and swarming with leeches. To 
explore this Archer sent men back to the lake to carry 
canoes hither, twenty miles, and we offered a reward of 
two cows for the recovery of the ivory. 
There ends, so far as our knowledge goes, the story 
of our elephant. It seemed certain that the sick beast 
would die wherever he took final refuge, and this con¬ 
viction was confirmed by a letter sent me a few days 
later : “ The latest news of your elephant is that he was 
seen, very sick , making for Magi-Moto or the swamp 
beyond. The natives are still on his spoor, so I trust 
you will have the satisfaction of receiving the ivory on 
your return here.” Yet no monster tusks were ever 
sent in to the fort at Baringo. Whether the Njemusi 
really failed to find the beast, or whether they recovered 
him and said nothing, we could not be certain. But, 
sad to tell, these primitive savages are already beginning 
to understand differences in value, and to distinguish 
between a pair of tusks worth, perhaps, £80 to £100 
sterling, and a couple of cows only worth as many 
rupees. 
The sensation of failure, after the prolonged excite¬ 
ment, risk and labour was sickening enough; twice we 
had been within less than ten yards of one of the grand¬ 
est beasts in all Africa, and had failed to secure him; 
yet we could not but feel thankful that we had come 
out of it unharmed. Both those terrible charges had 
been full of mischief and malice, and we had only 
escaped, in either case, through a mere lucky flaw or 
slant in the wind. My impression was that the danger 
is more real with elephant (and, in minor degree, with 
rhino) than with lion. For the big carnivora in¬ 
variably give one the first chance, and that ought, in 
their case, with modern weapons and short range, to be 
decisive ; whereas this elephant charged at once, with 
full intent to kill, before we had molested him in the 
smallest degree, beyond getting in his wind. Moreover, 
