Elephant Hunting in East Equatorial Africa

Some of the best story-telling of any big-game hunter!"An Account of Three Years' Ivory-Hunting Under Mount Kenia and Among the Ndorobo Savages of the Lorogi Mountains, Including a Trip to the North End of Lake Rudolph"- Quality Digital Text- Linked Table of Contents- More than 60 photos and illustrationsFrom the book:"I stood to face her, and threw up my rifle to fire at her head as she came on, at a quick run, without raising her trunk or uttering a sound, realising in a moment that this was the only thing to do, so short was the distance separating us. The click of the striker was the only result of pulling the trigger. No cartridge had entered the barrel on my working the bolt after the last shot, though the empty case had flown out! In this desperate situation I saw at once that my case was well-nigh hopeless. The enraged elephant was by this time within a few strides of me; the narrow path was walled in on each side with thick scrub. To turn and run down the path in an instinctive effort to escape was all I could do, the elephant overhauling me at every step. As I ran those few yards I made one spasmodic attempt to work the mechanism of the treacherous magazine, and, pointing the muzzle behind me without looking round, tried it again; but it was no go. She was now all but upon me. Dropping the gun, I sprang out of the path to the right and threw myself down among some brushwood in the vain hope that she might pass on. But she was too close; and, turning with me like a terrier after a rabbit, she was on the top of me as soon as I was down. In falling I had turned over on to my back, and lay with my feet towards the path, face upwards, my head being propped up by brushwood. Kneeling over me (but fortunately not touching me with her legs, which must, I suppose, have been on each side of mine), she made three distinct lunges at me, sending her left tusk through the biceps of my right arm and stabbing me between the right ribs, at the same time pounding my chest with her head (or rather, I suppose, the thick part of her trunk between the tusks) and crushing in my ribs on the same side. At the first butt some part of her head came in contact with my face, barking my nose and taking patches of skin off other spots, and I thought my head would be crushed, but it slipped back and was not touched again. I was wondering at the time how she would kill me; for of course I never thought anything but that the end of my hunting was come at last..."CHAPTER I - FIRST EXPEDITION FROM MOMBASAMy hunting weaponsAcross Mackenzie RiverRhinoceros — death-chargeWaller's GazelleGiraffeStalking oryxDevice for scaring vulturesCHAPTER II - ON THE JAMRENI RANGENatives' mode of killing elephantsSight bushbuckEncounter with elephantsImpalaHolding a "shauri""Blood-brotherhood"Track elephant spoorCHAPTER III - CAMPING AT MOUNT KENIAAdvantage of head shotEleven elephants killedThe Kenia jungleGwaso Nyiro RiverEncounter with lions — RhinosHostile nativesCHAPTER IV - THE NDOROBO COUNTRYCamp at El BogoiLimestone springsElandsZebraCHAPTER V - NDOROBO ELEPHANT-HUNTINGNdorobo weaponsTracking elephantsA fall-trapAn infuriated bullIncredulous guidesCHAPTER VI - RETURN TO MOMBASARoi rhébokA tribe on the war-pathEarthquakeCHAPTER VII - SECOND EXPEDITIONSamburuFlocks of guinea-fowlImpassable riverConstruct a canoeLorogi MountainsCHAPTER VIII - EXCURSIONS FROM EL BOGOIGiraffeLost in the bushCamp by the Seya RiverFive elephantsUp the Barasaloi RiverAn exciting huntA narrow escapeThe stories of adventure continue in the following chapters:IX - EXCURSIONS FROM EL BOGOI (cont)X - EXCURSIONS FROM EL BOGOI (cont)XI - FROM EL BOGOI TO LAKE RUDOLPHXII - LAKE RUDOLPHXIII - A SOJOURN AT RESHIAT AND KÉRÉXIV - RETURN TO LAKE RUDOLPHXV - RETURN TO LAKE RUDOLPH (cont)XVI - EN ROUTE FOR EL BOGOIXVII - CAMPING AT EL BOGOIXVIII - EL BOGOI TO MOMBASANote: The Appendix on butterflies has been removed Read more