CHAPTER IX 
THE STRUGGLE OF THE TITANS 
On October iith, 1911, while in the vicinity of 
the Luwegu River, we came upon the tracks of a 
herd of eight bull elephants that had been feeding 
near our camp during the previous night, and at 
once started in pursuit. By ten o’clock, we were 
fast approaching our quarry and knew by the 
pronounced odour pervading the air that some of 
the bulls among the herd were very old. (In ex¬ 
planation, let me state here that each animal of the 
chase gives off a distinctive odour by which the 
experienced hunter can infallibly tell whether he is 
in the vicinity of lion, buffalo, water-buck, eland or 
elephant, etc., as the case may be, or whether these 
beasts have recently passed.) They were making 
slow progress, sauntering to and fro, stopping here 
and there to browse, and occasionally smashing a 
tree on their way ; so congratulating ourselves that 
there was no wind, and praying that it would hold 
off, we followed the clear impressions of their 
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