280 
EAST AFRICA AND ITS BIG GAME. 
across them. On the 5 th we went a short march, and in the 
afternoon went out shooting. I shot a lesser kudu and wounded 
another badly, which, however, got away. While returning I 
heard a heavy rifle fired in the distance, followed by several 
other shots. About an hour after dark Greenfield returned in 
triumph with an elephant’s tail, and then gave us the length of 
its tusks. We were a little incredulous about the latter, but 
he was, as we found out afterwards, quite correct. The follow¬ 
ing is his own account:— 
Tana River, November 5. 
Went out in the evening, and had sighted some tope and a single 
Hunteri bull, the latter of which I proceeded to stalk. I had not been 
crawling long when I saw them put their heads up and look in my 
direction and gallop off. On looking round I saw the cause of it, one 
of my gun-bearers was running towards me and beckoning in a very 
excited way. He had come to tell me he had seen a big elephant 
feeding in the open and coming my way. I jumped up at once and 
ran well below the wind, and sighted a single bull elephant feeding 
quietly half a mile from me. I got my second gun-bearer, and with 
a ^77 and eight-bore went after him. I was in a great state of 
mind that Harvey, who was up the wind, would fire a shot and so 
frighten him. I got up to about 150 yards of him, taking advantage 
of bushes, &c. When going round a bush to have a look at him, I 
heard a great hiss within a few feet of me, and I saw a great snake 
standing up at me. I soon made tracks round the other side of the 
bush. The elephant now moved on, and was nearing some thin bush, 
so when he had his tail to me I moved on after him, so as not to be 
too far behind, as it was now getting dusk. I had not got far, and 
looking round, saw that my gun-bearer with the second rifle would not 
budge an inch. I went back, and at last got him to come on, and then 
got up to about twenty yards of the elephant’s tail. He soon turned 
round broadside to me, and I fired the eight-bore into the vertebrre. 
The first shot he swayed about. I quickly fired the second barrel at 
ame place, and he fell to the ground with a crash. I took the -577 
and ran up to him and fired several shots into the back of his head to 
finish him. He was a grand bull. The tusks of this elephant mea¬ 
sured 8 feet 3 inches and 8 feet, and weighed 81^ and 80 lbs. They 
were hollow a long way up, or else would have weighed considerably 
more. This would prove that he was not a very old animal. 
