9 o ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. 
thorny scrub, and as we crawled on hands and 
knees along the dark tunnel left by the buffalo’s 
passage through the elastic vegetation, a tunnel in 
which it was difficult, in spite of the brilliant sun¬ 
shine overhead, to see more than a yard or so in 
advance, we suffered agonies through our hands, 
arms and legs being lacerated by the spiniferous 
bush, and irritated by the spicules of the horrible 
itching upupu. Merging once more into the long 
grass, we came upon him, standing at right angles 
to his tracks, and we had crept up to within twenty 
yards of him, when he caught sight of us and 
charged. I instantly fired, but owing to the dense 
grass, accurate shooting was almost impossible, and 
although the bullet passed a little to the right of his 
heart, he continued his furious career and was 
within ten paces of me when I fired again. On this 
occasion, my bullet ploughed its way through his 
shoulder but failed to stop him, and, next moment, 
with a vicious snort, he was upon me. Catching 
me a sharp blow on the hip with his horn, he flung 
me headlong in the dense grass out of his way, and 
the impetus of his charge carrying him past 
Chingondo, who had dodged nimbly aside, he burst 
once more out of the belt of bush and floundered a 
few paces into the bed of the river, where he 
collapsed in a heap on the soft sand. Badly 
bruised but otherwise unhurt, I picked myself up 
