. Hunting and hunted in the Belgian Congo . than a hundred yards ahead,nine elephants bunched together grazing and snappingtwigs off tree and bush: even as I gazed, one of them onthe far side put up its trunk and brought down a hugebranch off the tree close by. There appeared to be onlyone decent-sized brute among them, and he was in thecentre. We crouched down and waited to obtain abetter view of them. I could not see the head of the largeanimal, but the others seemed to be all females. In afew minutes they opened out: yes, the large one was abull. I could now see his tusks gleaming white in
. Hunting and hunted in the Belgian Congo . than a hundred yards ahead,nine elephants bunched together grazing and snappingtwigs off tree and bush: even as I gazed, one of them onthe far side put up its trunk and brought down a hugebranch off the tree close by. There appeared to be onlyone decent-sized brute among them, and he was in thecentre. We crouched down and waited to obtain abetter view of them. I could not see the head of the largeanimal, but the others seemed to be all females. In afew minutes they opened out: yes, the large one was abull. I could now see his tusks gleaming white in thesun as he swung round almost facing me. Resting the•450 on a friendly bough, I waited until a chance offeredfor the heart shot. The huge ears which were flappingidly made it difficult for me to gauge where to fire for thebrain, so I determined on the heart. Bang ! went myright barrel, the huge beast stumbled, but recovereditself, the others cleared away in a flash, with ears spreadout and trunks raised high. The bull swung round a 84. ELEPHANT AND HIPPOPOTAMUS moment later, bringing up the rear. The earth trembledas they set off, trees and branches crashed down rightand left. We started at once in pursuit and after follow-ing up the reddened trail for several hours we espied theIlephants in a glade just ahead with only half theirbodies visible above the tall grass. The bull stood apartfrom the others. Taking shelter behind a tree I gotready again, and in two minutes another shot rang outand he came down with a crash of trees and bush. Onaccount of the long grass it was hard to tell, from whereI was, whether it was safe to advance; so Matakangascaled a tree close by and looking down on the brutefrom above was able to assure us that he was dead. Iadvanced, taking care to keep clear of the trunk. A shotin the back of the head seemed to quench the last sparkof activity in the enormous creature, but I would notallow the boys to approach until I had given him a fewmore rounds. I
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