344 TO THE UASIN GISHU [ch. xii 
her knees ; and then we all fired. The heavy rifles 
were too much even for such big beasts, and round they 
spun and rushed off. As they turned I dropped the 
second cow I had wounded with a shot in the brain, 
and the cow that had started to charge also fell, though 
it needed two or three more shots to keep it down as it 
struggled to rise. The cow at which I had first fired 
kept on with the rest of the herd, but fell dead before 
going a hundred yards. After we had turned the herd 
Kermit with his Winchester killed a bull calf, necessary 
to complete the Museum group ; we had been unable to 
kill it before because we were too busy stopping the 
charge of the cows. I was sorry to have to shoot the 
third cow, but with elephant starting to charge at 
twenty-five yards the risk is too great, and the need 
of instant action too imperative, to allow of any 
hesitation. 
We pitched camp a hundred yards from the elephants, 
and Akeley, working like a demon, and assisted by 
Tarlton, had the skins off the two biggest cows and the 
calf by the time night fell. I walked out and shot an 
oribi for supper. Soon after dark the hyenas began to 
gather at the carcasses and to quarrel among themselves 
as they gorged. Toward morning a lion came near and 
uttered a kind of booming, long-drawn moan, an ominous 
and menacing sound. The hyenas answered with an 
extraordinary chorus of yelling, howling, laughing, and 
chuckling, as weird a volume of noise as any to which 
I ever listened. At dawn we stole down to the carcasses 
in the faint hope of a shot at the lion. However, he 
was not there; but as we came toward one carcass a 
hyena raised its head seemingly from beside the elephant’s 
belly, and I brained it with the little Springfield. On 
walking up it appeared that I need not have shot at all. 
