, and
the bone is comparatively thin there. If you cannot make _sure_ of
hitting that, you simply face certain death. I would not have tried it
on any account whatever, had I not seen that both you and Jack would
have been killed had I not done so."

On examination we found that the heavy ball from Peterkin's rifle had
indeed penetrated the exact spot referred to, and had been the means of
killing the elephant, while my two bullets were found embedded in the
bone.

The tusks of this animal were magnificent. I do not know what their
exact weight was, not having the means wherewith to weigh them. They
were probably worth a considerable sum of money in the British market.
Of course we did not lay claim to any part of the spoil of that day,
with the exception of a few of the beautiful birds shot on the voyage up
the river, which were of no value to the natives, although priceless to
me. Alas! when I came to examine them next morning, I found that those
destructive creatures the white ants had totally destroyed the greater
part of them, and the few that were worth stuffing were very much
damaged.

Experience is a good though sometimes a severe teacher. Never again did
I, after that, put off the stuffing of any valuable creature till the
next day. I always stuffed it in the evening of the day on which it was
killed; and thus, although the practice cost me many a sleepless night,
I preserved, and ultimately brought home, many specimens of rare and
beautiful birds and beasts, which would otherwise have been destroyed by
those rapacious insects.

That night the scene of our camp was indescribably romantic and wild.
Numerous huge fires were lighted, and round these the negroes circled
and cooked elephant and venison steaks, while they talked over the
events of the day or recounted the adventures of former hunts with noisy
volubility and gesticulation.

The negro has a particular love for a fire. The nights in his warm
climate are chill to him, though not so to Europeans, and he luxuriates
in the heat of a fire as a cat does in the rays of the sun. The warm
blaze seems to draw out his whole soul, and causes his eyes to sparkle
with delight. A good supper and a warm fire render him almost perfectly
happy. There is but one thing wanting to render him supremely so, and
that is--a pipe! No doubt, under similar circumstances, the white man
also is in a state of enviable felicity, but he does not show his joy
like the