This Herd Must Have
Comprised About Fifty Elephants, That Must Have Been In The Same
Locality For Several Days, As The Ground Was Trampled In All
Directions, And The Mimosas Upon The Higher Land Were Uprooted In
Great Numnbers:
But after following upon the tracks for several
hours with great difficulty, owing to the intricacy of their
windings upon the dry and hard ground, we met with a sign fatal
to success,--the footprints of two men.
In a short time we met
the men themselves, two elephant-hunters who had followed the
herd on foot, with the sword as their only weapon: they had found
the elephants, which had obtained their wind and had retreated.
The Sheik Abou Do was furious at the audacity of these two
Hamrans, who had dared to disturb our hunting-grounds, and he
immediately ordered them to return to Geera.
In addition to the tracks of the herd, we had seen that of a
large single bull elephant; this we now carefully followed, and,
after many windings, we felt convinced that he was still within
the broken ground that formed the Settite valley. After some
hours' most difficult tracking, Taher Noor, who was leading the
way, suddenly sank gently upon all fours. This movement was
immediately, but quietly imitated by the whole party, and I
quickly distinguished a large grey mass about sixty yards distant
among the bushes, which, being quite leafless, screened the form
of the bull elephant, as seen through a veil of treble gauze.
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