EAST AFRICA AND ITS BIG GAME. 
234 
in what seemed to me to be the twinkling of an eye 
he was out of sight. We followed him for about a 
quarter of a mile, but were much bothered by the 
attendance of a well-grown offspring accompanied by 
a suckling, which snuffed about and kept up that low 
internal rumbling peculiar to elephants when excited 
or alarmed. As both declined to be driven away, and 
even made a threatening response to our efforts in that 
direction, we were obliged to shoot the larger one in 
self-defence. 
After that, we took up the blood-track of the big 
bull, without further interference, until its traces ceased 
and the spoor was obliterated by that of numerous 
others who had either followed or intersected its 
path. Then, feeling utterly exhausted, we returned to 
examine the cow, whose measurements proved to be 
nine feet seven inches from toe to wither. The right 
tusk when removed was exactly six feet in length, 
while the left, which had been broken off, measured 
only four feet. Both were, of course, delicate, weigh¬ 
ing respectively only twenty-seven and eighteen lbs., 
the former being a rather unusual weight for female 
elephant ivory. As we could only find the trace of one 
bullet, I suppose the explosion of the second barrel was 
not exactly coincident with that of the first, but any 
such mathematical refinement was a scientific waste as 
far as I was concerned, for the effects of a simultaneous 
explosion had fully operated upon me. 
During the rest of the march towards our new camp, 
which lay east of the Kilima Mombasa hill, it was a 
