ELEPHANTS 
161 
paper. The sensations aroused, though they may be 
realised in imagination, cannot be printed so. Nor can 
the degree of danger be defined, since the temperament 
and conduct of elephants differ. No two need be alike. 
These, for example, retired at the crucial moment; but 
in my own former experience on Lake Baringo (p. 68), 
a “ lone bull ” charged at once on scent alone, though 
otherwise unmolested; and instantly repeated the 
charge a second time, after being wounded. Here 
again, at Solai, only a few weeks before, a fatal accident 
had occurred. 1 Beyond all doubt we enjoyed unusual 
good fortune in thus encountering our elephants, not 
only in broad daylight, a steady breeze, and open 
country, but also taken at disadvantage in treacherous 
bog. Still there was, following on Mabruki’s insane shot 
“ into the brown,” a period of supreme danger, when 
for some seconds all our six lives hung in the balance. 
Had the elephants then seen us—when almost under 
1 An Englishman, as related to us, had found and stalked a 
single bull elephant, unaware of the presence of six others among 
bush on his flank, and to whose view he had thus unwittingly 
exposed himself during the stalk. On his firing at the bull, one of 
these six at once charged; and, the repeating mechanism of his rifle 
jamming, the poor fellow was straightway caught and killed. 
