fifteen or twenty feet high. In other places 
mighty monarchs of the wood, straight and 
tall, towered aloft to an immense height; 
among them were trees whose smooth, 
round boles were spotted like sycamores, 
while far above our heads their gracefully 
spreading branches were hung with vines 
like mistletoe and draped with Spanish 
moss; trees whose surfaces were corrugated 
and knotted as if they were made of bundles 
of great creepers; and giants whose but¬ 
tressed trunks were four times a man’s 
length across. 
Twice we got on elephant spoor, once of 
a single bull, once of a party of three. 
Then Cuninghame and the ’Ndorobo re¬ 
doubled their caution. They would mi¬ 
nutely examine the fresh dung; and above 
all they continually tested the wind, scan¬ 
ning the tree tops, and lighting matches to 
see from the smoke what the eddies were 
near the ground. Each time after an hour’s 
stealthy stepping and crawling along the 
twisted trail a slight shift of the wind in the 
almost still air gave our scent to the game, 
and away it went before we could catch a 
glimpse of it, and we resumed our walk. 
The elephant paths led up hill and down 
—for the beasts are wonderful climbers— 
662 
and wound in and out in every direction. 
They were marked by broken branches and 
the splintered and shattered trunks of the 
smaller trees, especially where the elephant 
had stood and fed, trampling down the 
bushes for many yards around. Where 
they had crossed the marshy valleys they 
had punched big round holes, three feet 
deep, in the sticky mud. 
As evening fell we pitched camp by the 
side of a little brook at the bottom of a ra¬ 
vine, and dined ravenously on bread, mut¬ 
ton, and tea. The air was keen, and under 
our blankets we slept in comfort until dawn. 
Breakfast was soon over and camp struck; 
and once more we began our cautious prog¬ 
ress through the dim, cool archways of the 
mountain forest. 
Two hours after leaving camp we came 
across the fresh trail of a small herd of 
perhaps ten or fifteen elephant cows and 
calves, but including two big herd bulls. 
At once we took up the trail. Cuninghame 
and his bush people consulted again and 
again, scanning every track and mark with 
minute attention. The sign showed that 
the elephants had fed in the shambas early 
in the night, had then returned to the 
mountain, and stood in one place resting 
