342 
TO THE UASIN GISHU [ch. xii 
isolated swamp ; but there he was on the meadow in 
front of me, invisible, but snorting, and galloping to 
and fro. Evidently he was much interested in the 
lights, and we thought he might charge us ; but he did 
not, retreating slowly as we advanced, until he plunged 
into the little pond. Hippos are sometimes dangerous 
at night, and so we waded through the swamp until we 
came to the pool at which the porters filled their buckets, 
and stood guard over them until they were through ; 
while the hippo, unseen in the darkness, came closer to 
us, snorting and plunging—possibly from wrath and 
insolence, but more probably from mere curiosity. 
Next morning Akeley, Tarlton, Kermit, and I started 
on our elephant hunt. We were travelling light. 1 
took nothing but my bedding, wash kit, spare socks, 
and slippers, all in a roll of waterproof canvas. We 
went to where we had seen the herd, and then took up 
the trail, Kongoni and two or three other gun-bearers 
walking ahead as trackers. They did their work well. 
The elephants had not been in the least alarmed. 
Where they had walked in single file it was easy to 
follow their trail ; but the trackers had hard work 
puzzling it out where the animals had scattered out and 
loitered along feeding. The trail led up and down hills 
and through open thorn scrub, and it crossed and re¬ 
crossed the wooded watercourses in the bottoms of the 
valleys. At last, after going some ten miles, we came 
on signs of where the elephants had fed that morning, 
and four or five miles farther on we overtook them. 
That we did not scare them into flight was due to 
Tarlton. The trail went nearly across wind ; the 
trackers were leading us swiftly along it, when suddenly 
Tarlton heard a low trumpet ahead and to the right 
hand. We at once doubled back, left the horses, and 
