644 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Oct. 28, 1911. 
climbed and he reported the camp to be close, 
the fires being distinctly visible through the black¬ 
ness of the night. 
Taking our bearings again we trudged on until 
another fairly tall tree being reached some con¬ 
siderable distance from the last one, I sent up 
one of the men who spoke Mnyoro, but some¬ 
how I was not quite satisfied with the interpre¬ 
tation one of my gun bearers was giving me— 
and besides I was not now in the best of temp¬ 
ers—and gave him a smack on the head. He im¬ 
mediately dropped one gun and cleared with the 
other into the darkness. As he ran, I shouted 
that if he did not return with the other gun he 
was a dead man. I caught the thud of the gun 
as he threw it away, but I could not stop him 
getting away with the cartridges. While I was 
covering this man, another man bolted. I gave 
this chap two barrels of my .450, which went 
close enough to him to bring him back to heel. 
The men were now properly scared, so I called 
them round and promised them that the next 
who attempted to bolt would be shot dead. 
It was now evident that we were quite lost. 
We were all very thirsty, I had no provisions, 
so I suggested that we should make for the pool 
of water to which I have referred before. I 
now directed the men to cut branches to mark 
our trail, and left my gun bearer to follow in 
the rear and see that branches were dropped. 
We marched another two hours, looking for 
water, but found none, so decided to camp. We 
found some sticks for a fire, lay down without 
blankets, and I ordered watches of an hour each 
through the night. The first thing was the pres¬ 
ence of an old rhino round about the camp which 
alarmed one of the gun bearers. “Kifaru,” he 
whispered to me. Though I could see nothing, 
I located the sniff, sniff, and said to myself: “I 
do not like this gentleman round about here,” so 
let go my .577, both barrels. This seemed to 
startle him, for there was a rush and disturbance 
of the bushes and all was quiet. Later on some¬ 
thing else came along which the men all agreed 
was a buffalo. I did not know what it was, but as 
sleep was necessary, I let it—whatever it was— 
have another two barrels. I now managed to 
get a little sleep. 
We were all now getting shockingly thirsty and 
decided to move on by the trail of the branches 
that we had dropped, feeling sure that I could 
find my way just as well as any of the natives 
after having given them their chance. The gun 
bearers seemed to be especially keen on getting 
to water, and threatened to lie down in it when 
they reached it until they were satisfied. Day¬ 
light had just broken as we moved off on the 
brushwood trail, and it was about 8 o’clock when 
we came to a point where this trail ran out, evi¬ 
dently through the men going to sleep the night 
before. 
I got them scouting round for the trail, but 
noticed uneasily that they were getting further 
and further from me, so I threatened that if 
they attempted to run away I would bowl them 
over, which brought them to their senses. My 
thirst was now worse than ever, and for half 
an hour we searched to pick up the lost trail. 
At last I said: “I know where the nearest 
water is—about five hours away (eighteen to 
twenty miles) and you have got to go there with 
me.” The place I meant was impossible for any¬ 
one else to find. 
We started marching due north, and about 1 
o’clock we struck the vlei where the water was, 
where rhinos had been recently wallowing. 
There we had a good drink, and though there 
was no lack of meat, no one cared for anything 
except to drink. 
We then started for Wenekis, the old chief’s 
place, where I had hunted years before. On the 
road through we struck the river which runs 
into the Nile where we camped the previous day. 
We all “flopped” into the river and lay in it. I 
had not the energy to put on my socks after 
this dip—so done up was I—but just pulled on 
my boots as they were and we pushed on for 
Wenekis. 
The old chief was very pleased to see us and 
sent his natives off for fowls and eggs, and we 
had a good meal. I then asked for two or three 
natives to go to my camp. They started off with 
natives from another village and spoored up the 
camp. At 12 o’clock that night men rolled up 
with provisions and blankets and next day we 
started off to find camp again with five shenries. 
We fell in with two Wanderobo Luguwarra 
(hunters), neither of whom knew the track, but 
we started looking for the track of the rhinos 
and elephants. 
About 3 o’clock in the afternon we got on to 
the elephants and found that the birds and the 
Luguwarra had practically taken all the meat, 
and the latter were still at work taking out the 
tusks to send along to my camp. When I event¬ 
ually took the right course I found I was only 
half an hour away from the camp in the first 
place. 
On my arrival the cook reported that a party 
of Luguwarra—300 strong—had called at the 
camp to ask who it was shooting, and on learn¬ 
ing had decided to help themselves to the meat 
and take out the tusks and send to me. 
This particular part of the country was as 
difficult as any I had known to find one’s way 
about in, and it was hardly safe to allow even 
the porters to move far from the camp. 
Buckley’s First Elephant. 
I had always been very anxious to see an ele¬ 
phant and found it hard to believe they existed 
in a wild state. To be sure, I had seen one at 
the Zoo, but when I learned that it was possible 
to shoot them, nothing would stop me. I felt 
that I must be off after them. I fitted out my 
safari and told them to keep up with me if pos¬ 
sible, and if not to follow up as closely as 
possible. 
I first met with elephants after going four or 
five hours dead blind—with no spoor to guide 
me—just blundered on them. There was one 
old bull standing up like a mountain and I asked 
my gun bearer what his tusks were like. “Very 
big,” was the reply, and as I looked at him I 
felt that the elephant himself was big, as he 
loomed up very huge in the light of the setting 
sun. He was standing on the other side of the 
stream and I thought the best thing was to cross 
the stream myself, and I accordingly scrambled 
across. 
He was standing with a very sleepy look about 
him and recalling that I had been told that the 
proper spot was between the . eye and the ear, I 
got him one on the nose. He lurched to and 
fro, but I could see no other effect of my shot, 
so I plugged at him till further orders, when 
suddenly my men said : “Look, look !” 
There was another beauty—£80—going off at 
full trot on the other side. I left the first one 
alone and fired at the second. Then off I went 
after him as hard as I could go, leaving my boys 
behind in the race and myself carrying my double 
barreled black powder gun, in which by the way 
I was using cordite. The gun by this time was 
quite hot, and I had to knock it against a rock 
to open it. At every opportunity I took a shot 
at the tusker, and presently he apparently de¬ 
cided to let the cows go on, turned round to¬ 
ward me and stood by a small tree. Not know¬ 
ing the right spot, I plugged and plugged away 
at him. It was only after about the tenth shot 
that he slowly fell over backward. 
As for the first one, I never knew what be¬ 
came of him, and in fact, so pleased was I with 
my first success, that I did not even look for him. 
Buckley’s Ladder. 
The grass in the districts in which I shoot is 
very long and has worried me considerably, for 
as it was often higher than my head, I could 
not see the elephants to distinguish whether they 
were cows or bulls. 
I began to think, and after a time I said to 
myself: “What about a ladder?” I accordingly 
sent some boys out to cut poles and manufac¬ 
tured a ladder. This was carried by two men 
and when we got close to elephants in the long 
grass, the ladder was fixed in position, and I 
climbed up it and shot elephants with much 
success. 
I had no idea that anything was known about 
this, but when I came back from Uganda, many 
people asked me about this ladder business, while 
even Governor Bell, after remarking that he 
could not understand how Buckley shot his ele¬ 
phants so easily, got to hear of it. 
It was quite a successful method of shooting, 
but there was always the danger that if the ele¬ 
phants charged, the men might suddenly let go 
the ladder and look to their own safety. 
Buckley’s 147-Pounder. 
I was at one time very friendly with a certain 
chief who promised to let me know when the 
elephants came round in his district. 
One day he sent word that there was a beauty 
in the neighborhood, and I set off for the dis¬ 
trict. I noticed the negroes who _ were guiding 
me were very nervous when they got on to his 
tracks, but I was to know the reason of this 
later. I cautioned them to be careful and not let 
the elephant get our wind. 
As I did not know where we were to meet the 
elephant, I had to follow the trackers, and be¬ 
fore I knew where I was, I suddenly saw a brute 
moving off after he had seen us. 
“Quick!” I shouted; “follow him!” They did 
not do this, but I took up the spoor on the mule, 
following straight into the long grass. Suddenly 
I saw the elephant making a break to the right. 
I jumped off my mule, let him go and seized 
my gun. I had not far to go—only about 100 
yards—when I caught sight of him again, and 
a huge brute he was. My gun bearer was close 
behind, and the elephant was standing, waiting 
to see what we wanted. I moved up to about 
twenty yards, and decided to get in my usual 
ear shot. He was turning his head and follow¬ 
ing my every movement. I thought the time was 
