Hunters three: Sport and adventure in South Africa

by Thomas Wallace Knox

Mirogo led the way into the swamp, and I followed; and before we had gone half a mile I had made two or three tumbles in the mud and water, and was covered from head to foot with black ooze. We went along as quietly as possible; but with all our care we could not help treading on an occasional stick or making some other disturbance. We could hear the elephants tramping around in the water, and they were evidently a good deal disturbed at the loss of their companion, who had fallen before my rifle. At one time they seemed to be receding from us, and I was about suggesting that we give up the chase and rejoin Jack and Harry on the open ground outside the forest.

Suddenly Mirogo, who was about ten feet in advance of me, turned around, and with finger on his lip made a motion toward the front. I crept along to his side, and when I reached it he whispered that the elephants were there—he had just seen one.

I took my gun from Kalil, and then glanced at the position to see what line of retreat I could take in case of trouble. The prospects were not favorable, and I know I felt a sinking sensation clear down into my boots, which were filled with water; but the sportsman's fire was within me, and I crept on.

Passing around a clump of bushes through a medium-sized mud-hole, and then around another clump, I came in sight of a fine bull-elephant; not as large as my first one of the morning, but still a very fine one for a hunter's bag. Unfortunately he was standing directly tail on toward me. A shot at the stern of a ship may sometimes do great damage, but not so a shot at the stern of an elephant: there is a great mass of fleshy matter there, and you can fire into it with anything short of a cannon-ball without doing much damage, and, what is more, without impeding the movements of the beast. You will simply enrage him, and that is about all.

To keep out of his sight I had to get down into a mud-hole, or rather I lay with most of my body in the mud and water, and my head and shoulders supported by one of the little islands or tussocks.

For three or four minutes the swishing and cracking of the bushes continued, and I could see the back of the elephant most of the time, but not very distinctly. Then his back disappeared and he seemed to move away, which compelled me to change my position, giving up one mud-hole for another. As I rose to an erect position I stepped on a stick, which gave way with an audible crack. Luckily the elephant at this time was engaged in smashing about among the bushes, and so did not hear me.

I crept cautiously along, and as I did so the elephant moved out from behind a large bush and presented a fine broadside. I took in the shape of his tusks and noted that they were perfect. Then I brought the rifle to my shoulder and fired.

It was a successful shot—at least, successful in one way, though disastrous in another. The elephant came down head foremost; in fact, his head was so very much foremost that it was doubled under him. He was standing just above a little island or tussock, on which lay a fallen log. Both his tusks rested on this log, and his great weight, being concentrated upon his head, broke one of the tusks short off at the lip. I heard the crack and knew that something was wrong.

The other tusk came near breaking, and I have always wondered why it did not give way; instead of doing so it tore open that side of the skull, fairly bursting the thick bone, just as the young shoot of a plant bursts the soil in which it grows. If the two tusks could have burst out in this manner it would have been a saving of time and trouble, as I then could have carried them away with me at once or sent my men to get them.

There are three ways of getting the tusks of an elephant that you have killed. If you must have them at once your only recourse is to chop them out; and chopping the tusks out of an elephant's head is no small matter. If you are encamped in the neighborhood and can wait a week or ten days, you can, at the end of that time, pull the tusks out without much difficulty. As the flesh of the animal decomposes, the tusks become loosened, just as the teeth of a horse or other animal become loose in a week or two after his death. The third way is to have the elephant fall upon the tusks in such a manner as to pry them out of their sockets. The reader will readily perceive that this is entirely a matter of accident, and of rare accident at that. Besides, there is a risk of breaking the tusks, as happened in my case.