She stood as she had stood for some moments, gazing directly at us and nervously waving her ears and trunk.
[Drawing: _The Rear-guard_] Akeley climbed to the top of an ant-hill and made some photographs showing the big cow and her companions in the foreground, while off on the neighboring hillside three distinct groups of elephants were in view.

The latter were thoroughly alarmed and moved away very swiftly for some distance and then came to a pause.

The big cow and her attendants then moved off, feeling that the retreat had been successfully effected.
Once more we followed them and came up to them, and then once more we were flanked by a number of elephants that had previously disappeared over the hill.

They had swung around and were returning directly toward where we stood, unsuspecting.
We barely had time to fall back to some small bushes, where we waited while the flanking party approached.

They came almost toward us, and when only about fifty feet away I ventured a photograph, feeling that, if successful, it would be the closest picture ever made of a herd of wild elephants.