244 
ELEPHANT-HUNTING 
[CH. X 
Then I came, clad in khaki-coloured flannel shirt and 
khaki trousers buttoning down the legs, with hobnailed 
shoes, and a thick slouch hat. I had intended to wear 
rubber-soled shoes, but the soaked ground was too 
slippery. My two gun-bearers followed, carrying the 
Holland and the Springfield. Then came Heller, at 
the head of a dozen porters and skinners; he and they 
were to fall behind when we actually struck fresh 
elephant spoor, but to follow our trail by the help of a 
Dorobo who was left with them. 
For three hours our route lay along the edge of the 
woods. We climbed into and out of deep ravines in 
which groves of tree-ferns clustered. We waded through 
streams of swift water, whose course was broken by 
cataract and rapid. We passed through shambas and 
by the doors of little hamlets of thatched beehive huts. 
We met flocks of goats and hairy, fat-tailed sheep 
guarded by boys; strings of burden-bearing women 
stood meekly to one side to let us pass ; parties of 
young men sauntered by, spear in hand. 
Then we struck into the great forest, and in an 
instant the sun was shut from sight by the thick screen 
of wet foliage. It was a riot of twisted vines, inter¬ 
lacing the trees and bushes. Only the elephant paths, 
which, of every age, crossed and recrossed it hither and 
thither, made it passable. One of the chief difficulties 
in hunting elephants in the forest is that it is impossible 
to travel, except very slowly and with much noise, off 
these trails, so that it is sometimes very difficult to 
take advantage of the wind; and although the sight of 
the elephant is dull, both its sense of hearing and its 
sense of smell are exceedingly acute. 
Hour after hour we worked our way onward through 
tangled forest and matted jungle. There was little sign 
