124 
In the Heart of Africa 
stalks getting gradually nearer, and expected every moment to 
see the elephants appear in the clearing, but in vain. During 
the night, however, one of them burst noisily past the camp not 
a hundred paces away. 
I determined to try my luck the next morning. Setting out, 
clad in a thick hunting jacket, I found the grass again frosted, 
and it required a very short search to locate the fresh tracks 
of the elephants in the long meadow grass below the camp. 
What contrasts life offers us! An elephant hunt on frozen 
ground! My mind carried me back to a day, almost to the 
exact time of the year, when I had hunted a fine rutting stag 
amidst the September scenery of Hungarian mountains, accom¬ 
panied by similar cold. 
We now picked up the trail on the frosted, crackling meadow, 
and it led us, without perceptibly rising, to the southern slope 
of Mgahinga through a glorious leafy wood where the morning 
sun’s rays played on the tree tops, and the long drooping 
creepers lost themselves in the underwood. 
From a little distance away we heard the chewing of the 
browsing beasts. The brushwood where the herd had passed 
was trampled down in broad tracks. This served as a sure sign 
that the elephants, who were still busy feeding, moved along 
but slowly. We crept on now with hearts beating some¬ 
what higher and with extreme caution, avoiding every thorn 
and sprig and clambering noiselessly over broken boughs and 
twigs. The elephants could scarcely have been fifty paces away 
from us. Suddenly something crackled at my side, and step¬ 
ping out from behind a bush I almost knocked up against an 
elephant, but alas! going straight away from my gun. He 
must have noticed something, for turning sharply round he fled. 
My eye was soon searching for a good place to hit him and for 
rear and fore-sight of my rifle, and as the colossus, with his 
tremendous ears flapping, trotted across a small glade, I fired 
a ball obliquely, just behind the ear. He fell without uttering 
a sound, and hurrying up I found that he was dead. 
Whilst still lost in contemplation of the mighty creature, 
