The jungle was one of the billeil, the worst kind of thorn bush, and they soon left me far behind. I ran back to the hill to get a bird’s eye view of their line of retreat, as shown by the clouds of dust rising above the jungle, and I hoped they would stop; but they made off up the Daghatto Valley in a straight line, evidently bent on leaving the country.
While I was watching their course, a Malingúr came to me, and said that Abokr had climbed a tree which he pointed out to us half a mile to the east, and that he had seen elephants. I shouldered the four-bore, and followed by Géli and Daura leading the mule, I went to the tree, and found Abokr among its branches. He extended his arm and pointed out the elephants, which were a fresh lot altogether. We could only see brown patches among the tops of some thorn-trees five hundred yards away, and although they did not move, from former experience we knew what they were.
All the elephants in Daghatto seemed to have been rolling in reddish brown clay, which, contrasted with the vivid green background of the trees under strong sunlight, made them look of a brick-red colour. The jungle in which they had taken refuge was a small grove of large trees growing together, and for about two hundred yards in front was very thorny khansa bush, the flat umbrella tops nearly meeting at a height of about four feet from the ground. There was no cover higher than this except the clump of trees where the elephants were, and a few small, flimsy adad bushes rising above the khansa undergrowth. The elephants themselves, half hidden in the foliage of the large trees on which they had been feeding, had a good view all around from the citadel which they had chosen, making it difficult to approach unobserved. The passages underneath the khansa bushes were too tortuous and thorny to be of any use. A belt of high jungle on our left grew to within a hundred yards of the herd, and at the same distance beyond them was an extensive forest, the wind blowing over the elephants’ heads in our faces.
By taking advantage of the belt of forest on our side, I managed to get within a hundred yards; and then crawling out into the khansa undergrowth for twenty yards, I sat on a low ant-hill which rose above it and rested my elbows on my knees, and remained motionless for some time with the rifle up, waiting for a chance. The eyes and temple of the largest elephant could be seen in a gap of the foliage, and taking a careful aim at the centre of the temple I fired, and bolted back through the khansa to the edge of the high trees, to receive them there if they should charge. They made off, however, up wind, all except one, a large bull with moderate tusks, which we found kneeling, stone dead, under the trees, a crimson stream flowing from a hole through the temple just where I had aimed. This was a good test of the powers of the eight-bore Paradox gun, the distance being eighty yards.
Going after the others, I found they were three cows and a calf, so I gave up the chase and returned to the hillock to look round. A curious sight there met our eyes. The Daghatto Valley lay before us, one unbroken expanse of tree jungle, and we could see five or six groups of elephants making away up the valley, going north. There were probably not less than one hundred and twenty in all, looking very red under the low evening sun; sometimes their backs could be seen in a shining line above the jungle, sometimes they disappeared in the thicker parts.
It was now getting late, and after a short search for the elephant which I had hit in the head at the beginning of the hunt, I gave up the chase and, collecting my people, made for camp, many miles distant.
Had I chosen I could easily have shot more elephants upon this occasion. Elephant-hunting is, to my mind, one of the most exciting forms of sport, but when one has had a certain amount of success, there can be no excuse for continuing it merely for the pleasure of killing. Upon this journey, however, my comfort depended greatly upon the good opinion my Somális had of me, and I could not afford to have my motives for not firing at elephants misinterpreted.
While we were returning to camp at sundown a leopard sprang out of some undergrowth a few yards ahead of us, and he had bounded away before I had time to fire. As we reached camp, with Daura, as usual after a successful hunt, taking the lead and singing, all the camp men fell into line to mark their appreciation, and crowded round me to salaam and shake hands.
On the 23rd, starting early and carrying axes and knives, we went to remove the head-skin and cut out the tusks of the bull elephant. As we walked up to the grove of trees and came in sight of the body, a fine panther, which had been quietly sleeping against it on the lee side, gave us one look and bounded away. I could not fire, as Géli’s head was just in the way when I first saw the spotted skin. The brute had come, no doubt, during the night to lick the blood, and had been caught taking a nap rather later than usual. I followed through thorny jungle to try and get another glimpse, but the panther had disappeared.
We had rain all day, and returned to camp very damp, with the tusks, in the evening. The whole valley was practically a swamp, and we several times had to wade up to our knees, and once up to our waists, in mud and water. Only by first trying the depth of the slush with our own bodies did we succeed in getting the camels on to camp.