To Lake Albert Edward 
187 
shots hurriedly discharged at the hindmost animal caused it to 
circle about twice, but were not enough to upset it; then it joined 
the troop and fled with them. We followed at the double as far 
as a terrace-shaped declivity, where the steppe ended at the river, 
whose bank was overgrown with dense reed and swamp grass. 
Here we came upon the troop again, which had waded into the 
river, but apparently could not make up its mind to cross it. 
The animal, which had previously been wounded, was unable 
to follow with the troop, and as Veriter, who had kept his wind 
best, came up and gave him another bullet through the head, it 
collapsed and lay as if dead. A carrier rushed up overjoyed, 
and with one cut divided the tail from the body. The hairs of 
the tail of an elephant are much prized by the natives; ornaments 
of all sorts, bracelets, neck adornments, etc., are fashioned from 
them. At the moment, however, that the carrier flourished the 
severed trophy in the air the supposed dead elephant furiously 
rose up and perceived his assailant. I arrived just in time to 
obtain a photographic picture of this indescribably comical scene, 
this abrupt transformation of the joy of victory into deadly 
fear. Whilst the carriers scurried away in all directions, 
Veriter stood in perplexity before his opponent, searching all his 
pockets in vain for cartridges, with which he had thoughtlessly 
provided himself too sparsely. But the elephant was so injured 
that no further danger was to be apprehended from him, and on 
receiving a further shot from my rifle in the shoulder he rolled 
slowly over on to his side and expired. 
I then followed up the remainder of the herd, and soon caught 
sight of a fine bull, who had already received a few bullets from 
me, standing alone and badly hurt at the edge of a small island 
in the river. First I took a couple of snapshots with my hand 
camera at about 120 metres’ distance, and then I fired at him 
again. The elephant first advanced a few steps up on to the 
island, and then proceeded slowly through the tall reed-grass 
invisible to me, and through the stream on to the bank, where, 
after passing through some more grass, he finally reappeared at 
a considerable distance away. As a broad swamp now separated 
