the cape buffalo we have already described, and we now refer to him again only for the purpose of quoting mr. cumming's account of a spirited fight with one. he thus relates the affair.
on the evening of the next day i had a glorious row with an old bull buffalo: he was the only large bull in a fine herd of cows. i found their spoor while walking ahead of the wagon, and following it up, i came upon a part of the herd feeding quietly in a dense part of the forest. i fired my first shot at a cow, which i wounded. the other half of the herd then came up right in my face, within six yards of me. they would have trampled on me if i had not sung out in their faces and turned them. i selected the old bull and sent a bullet into his shoulder. the herd then crashed along through the jungle to my right, but he at once broke away from them and took to my left. on examining his spoor, i found it bloody. i then went to meet my wagons, which i heard coming on, and, ordering the men to outspan, i took all my dogs to the spoor. they ran it up in fine style, and in a few minutes the silence of the forest was disturbed by a tremendous bay. on running towards the sound i met the old fellow coming on towards the wagons, with all my dogs after him. i saluted him with a second ball in the shoulder; he held on and took up a position in the thicket within forty yards of the wagons, where i finished him. he carried a most splendid head.
in another part of his narrative, mr. cumming thus describes a desperate battle with an elephant.
on the 27th i cast loose my horses at earliest dawn of day, and then i lay half asleep for two hours, when i arose to consume coffee and rhinoceros. having breakfasted, i started with a party of natives to search for elephants in a southerly direction. we held along the gravelly bed of a periodical river, in which were abundance of holes excavated by the elephants in quest of water. here the spoor of rhinoceros was extremely plentiful, and in every hole where they had drunk the print of the horn was visible. we soon found the spoor of an old bull elephant, which led us into a dense forest, where the ground was particularly unfavorable for spooring; we, however, threaded it out for a considerable distance, when it joined the spoor of other bulls.
the natives now requested me to halt, while the men went off in different directions to reconnoitre. in the mean time a tremendous conflagration was roaring and crackling close to windward of us. it was caused by the bakalahari burning the old dry grass to enable the young to spring up with greater facility, whereby they retained the game in their dominions. the fire stretched away for many miles on either side of us, darkening the forest far to leeward with a dense and impenetrable canopy of smoke. here we remained for about half an hour, when one of the men returned, reporting that he had discovered elephants. this i could scarcely credit, for i fancied that the extensive fire which raged so fearfully must have driven, not only elephants, but every living creature out of the district, the native, however, pointed to his eye, repeating the word "klow," and signed to me to follow him.
my guide led me about a mile through dense forest, when we reached a little wellwood hill, to whose summit we ascended, whence a view might have been obtained of the surrounding country, had not volumes of smoke obscured the scenery far and wide, as though issuing from the funnels of a thousand steamboats. here, to my astonishment, my guide halted, and pointed to the thicket close beneath me, when i instantly perceived the colossal backs of a herd of bull elephants. there they stood quietly browsing on the lee side of the hill, while the fire in its might was raging to windward within two hundred yards of them.
i directed johannus to choose an elephant, and promised to reward him should he prove successful. galloping furiously down the hill, i started the elephants with an unearthly yell, and instantly selected the finest in the herd. placing myself alongside, i fired both barrels behind his shoulder, when he instantly turned upon me, and in his impetuous career charged head foremost against a large bushy tree which he sent flying before him high in the air with tremendous force, coming down at the same moment violently on his knees. he then met the raging fire, when, altering his course, he wheeled to the right-about as i galloped after him i perceived another noble elephant meeting us in an opposite direction, and presently the gallant johannus hove in sight, following his quarry at a respectful distance. both elephants held on together, so i shouted to johannus, "i will give your elephant a shot in the shoulder and you must try to finish him." spurring my horse, i rode close alongside, and gave the fresh elephant two balls immediately behind the shoulder, when he parted from mine, johannus following; but before many minutes had elapsed that mighty nimrod reappeared, having fired one shot and lost his prey.
in the mean time i was loading and firing as fast as could be, sometimes at the head, sometimes behind the shoulder, until my elephant's fore-quarters were a mass of gore, notwithstanding which he continued to hold stoutly on, leaving the grass and branches of the forest scarlet in his wake.
on one occasion he endeavored to escape by charging desperately amid the thickest of the flames; but this did not avail, and i was soon once more alongside. i blazed away at this elephant, until i began to think that he was proof against my weapons. having fired thirty-five rounds with my two-grooved rifle, i opened fire upon him with the dutch six-pounder; and when forty bullets had perforated his hide, he began for the first time to evince signs of a dilapidated constitution. he took up a position in a grove; and as the dogs kept barking round him, he backed stern foremost amongst the trees, which yielded before his gigantic strength. poor old fellow! he had long braved my deadly shafts, but i plainly saw that it was all over with him; so i resolved to expend no further ammunition, but hold him in view until he died. throughout the chase this elephant repeatedly cooled his person with large quantities of water, which he ejected from his trunk over his back and sides; and just as the pangs of death came over him, he stood trembling violently beside a thorny tree, and kept pouring water into his bloody mouth until he died, when he pitched heavily forward, with the whole weight of his fore-quarters resting on the points of his tusks.
a most singular occurrence now took place. he lay in this posture for several seconds, but the amazing pressure of the carcase was more than the head was able to support. he had fallen with his head so short under him that the tusks received little assistance from his legs. something must give way. the strain on the mighty tusks was fair; they did not, therefore, yield; but the portion of his head in which his trunk was imbedded, extending a long way above the eye, yielded and burst with a muffled crash. the tusk was thus free, and turned right round in his head, so that a man could draw it out, and the carcase fell over and rested on its side. this was a very first-rate elephant, and the tusks he carried were long and perfect.