343 
CH. xn] AN ELEPHANT CHARGE 
advanced towards where the noise indicated that the 
herd were standing. 
In a couple of minutes we sighted them. It was just 
noon. There were six cows and two well-grown calves 
—these last being quite big enough to shift for them¬ 
selves or to be awkward antagonists for any man of 
whom they could get hold. They stood in a clump, 
each occasionally shifting its position or lazily flapping 
an ear; and now and then one would break off a branch 
with its trunk, tuck it into its mouth, and withdraw it 
stripped of its leaves. The wind blew fair, we were 
careful to make no noise, and with ordinary caution we 
had nothing to fear from their eyesight. The ground 
was neither forest nor bare plain; it was covered with 
long grass and a scattered open growth of small scantily 
leaved trees, chiefly mimosas, but including some trees 
covered with gorgeous orange-red flowers. After 
careful scrutiny we advanced behind an ant-hill to 
within sixty yards, and I stepped forward for the shot. 
Akeley wanted two cows and a calf. Of the two best 
cows one had rather thick, worn tusks; those of the 
other were smaller, but better shaped. The latter stood 
half facing me, and I put the bullet from the right 
barrel of the Holland through her lungs, and fired the 
left barrel for the heart of the other. Tarlton, and then 
Akeley and Kermit, followed suit. At once the herd 
started diagonally past us, but half halted and faced 
toward us when only twenty-five yards distant, an un¬ 
wounded cow beginning to advance with her great ears 
cocked at right angles to her head; and Tarlton called, 
“ Look out; they are coming for us.” At such a 
distance a charge from half a dozen elephants is a 
serious thing. I put a bullet into the forehead of the 
advancing cow, causing her to lurch heavily forward to 
