254 ELEPHANT-HUNTING [ch. x 
motionless, and up went the biggest elephant’s trunk, 
feeling for the wind. The watcher coughed again, and 
then the bushes and saplings swayed and parted as three 
black bulks came toward us. The cover was so high 
that we could not see their tusks, only the tops of their 
heads and their backs being visible. The leader was 
the biggest, and at it I fired when it was sixty yards 
away, and nearly broadside on, but heading slightly 
toward me. I had previously warned everyone to 
kneel. The recoil of the heavy rifle made me rock, as 
I stood unsteadily on my perch, and I failed to hit the 
brain. But the bullet, only missing the brain by an 
inch or two, brought the elephant to its knees ; as it 
rose I floored it with the second barrel. The blast of 
the big rifle, by the way, was none too pleasant for the 
other men on the log, and made Cuninghame’s nose 
bleed. Reloading, I fired twice at the next animal, 
which was now turning. It stumbled and nearly fell, 
but at the same moment the first one rose again, and I 
fired both barrels into its head, bringing it once more 
to the ground. Once again it rose—an elephant’s brain 
is not an easy mark to hit under such conditions—but 
as it moved slowly off, half-stunned, I snatched the 
little Springfield rifle, and this time shot true, sending 
the bullet into its brain. As it fell I took another shot 
at the wounded elephant, now disappearing in the 
forest, but without effect. 
On walking up to our prize it proved to be not a 
cow, but a good-sized adult (but not old) herd bull, 
with thick, short tusks, weighing about forty pounds 
apiece. Ordinarily, of course, a bull, and not a cow, is 
what one desires, although on this occasion I needed a 
cow to complete the group for the National Museum. 
However, Heller and Cuninghame spent the next few 
