VIII 
VICIOUS ELEPHANTS AND A BUFFALO 87 
down from one of the gardens in which he had been 
sampling the tobacco leaves he loved so well, and 
managed after a lively piece of hunting to kill him 
but I was amply repaid for my trouble by his 
magnificent tusks, one of which weighed 113 lbs., 
and the other 104. 
When travelling along the Mbarangandu River, 
on one occasion, I had an exciting experience with 
a buffalo. I had stopped to have lunch and await 
my carriers, who had been following along with my 
baggage, about half a mile behind; and they had 
hardly overtaken us, when we heard a succession of 
terrified yells some distance in their rear. My 
trackers and men at once began to make all sorts 
of conjectures as to what had occurred, some saying 
a snake had bitten one of the carriers who had 
lagged behind, others attributing the trouble 
to an elephant, or a buffalo, or a lion, or a leopard, 
but feeling that this was rather an unprofitable 
occupation, I ran in the direction whence the shouts 
had come, sprinting a distance of about seven 
hundred yards through the soft dry sand of the 
river bed, carrying with me my heavy double rifle, 
weighing thirteen pounds. By this time, all was 
silence, and fearing that the affair, whatever it might 
be, had had a serious ending, I plunged, almost 
dropping with exhaustion, into the long grass in the 
hope of clearing up the mystery of that succession of 
