Taking
A Steady Shot At His Shoulder, I Gave Him A Second Dose Of The Four-
Ounce; He Reeled To And Fro And Staggered Into The Jungle.
I dared not
follow him in my crippled state, and we returned to the horses; but the
next day he was found dead by the natives.
I much feared that the shot fired might have disturbed the herd of
elephants, as they were reported to be not far distant; this, however,
proved not to be the case, as we met the watchers about a mile farther
on, who reported the herd to be perfectly undisturbed, but located in
the everlasting lemon grass. At this time the greater portion of the
Park was a mass of this abominable grass, and there was no chance of
getting the elephants in any other position, this serving them at the
same time for both food and shelter. How they can eat it is a puzzle; it
is as sharp as a knife, and as coarse as a file, with a flavour of the
most pungent lemon peel.
We shortly arrived at the spot in which the herd was concealed; it was a
gentle slope covered with dense lemon grass, terminated by a jungle. We
could just distinguish the tops of the elephants' heads in several
places, and, having dismounted, we carefully entered the grass, and
crept towards the nearest elephants. The herd was much scattered, but
there were five elephants close to each other, and we made towards
these, Banda leading the way.
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