372 Scientific Intelligence. 



water, one of the elephants had evidently fallen, for the marks of his feet 

 were distinctly visible at the bottom, as well as the impress of its huge 

 body on its sides. How he had got into it was easy to conjecture, but how, 

 being once in, he had ever contrived to get out again was the marvel. By 

 his own unaided efforts it was obviously impossible for such an animal to 

 have extricated himself. Could his comrades, then, have assisted him ? 

 There can be no question but they had ; though by what means, unless by 

 hauling him out with their trunks, it would not be easy to conjecture: and 

 in corroboration of this supposition, on examining the spot myself, I found 

 the edges of this trench deeply indented with numerous vestiges, as if the 

 other elephants had stationed themselves on either side, some of them kneel- 

 ing, and others on their feet, and had thus, by united efforts, and probably 

 after many failures, hoisted their unlucky brother out of the pit.— Similar 

 instances of intelligence and affectionate attachment have been frequently 

 related to me by persons of veracity familiar with the habits of the elephant 

 in his wild state. The following is a specimen. On one occasion, a band 

 of hunters had surprised two elephants, a male and female, in an open spot 

 near the skirts of a thick and thorny jungle. The animals fled towards the 

 thickets : and the male, in spite of many balls which struck him ineffec- 

 tually, was soon safe from the reach of the pursuers ; but the female was so 

 sorely wounded, that she was unable to retreat with the same alacrity, and 

 the hunters having got between her and the wood, were preparing speedily 

 to finish her career, when, all at once, the male rushed forth with the ut- 

 most fury from his hiding-place, and with a shrill and frightful scream, 

 like the loud sound of a trumpet, charged down upon the huntsmen. So 

 terrific was the animal's aspect that all instinctively sprung to their horses, 

 and fled for life. The elephant, disregarding the others, singled out an un- 

 fortunate man (Cobus Klopper I think was his name,) who was the last 

 person that had fired upon its comrade, and who was standing, with his 

 horse's bridle over his arm, re-loading his huge gun at the moment the in- 

 furiated animal burst from the wood. Cobus also leaped hastily on horse- 

 back, but before he could seat himself in his saddle the elephant was upon 

 him. One blow from his proboscis struck poor Cobus to the earth ; and, 

 without troubling himself about the horse, which galloped off in terror, he 

 thrust his gigantic tusks through the man's body, and then, after stamping 

 it flat with its ponderous feet, again seized it with his trunks and flung it 

 high into the air. Having thus wreaked vengeance upon his foes, he walked 

 gently up to his consort, and affectionately caressing her, supported her 

 wountled side with his shoulder, and, regardless of the vollies of balls with 

 which the hunters, who had again rallied to the conflict, assailed them, he 

 succedeed in conveying her from their reach into the impenetrable recesses 

 of the forest. — One of my own friends, Lieut. John Moodie, of the Scotch 

 Fusilcers, now a settler in South Africa, had an almost miraculous escape 

 on an occasion somewhat similar. He had gone out to an elephant hunt 

 with a party of friends ; and they had already succeeded in killing one or 

 two of a small herd, and the rest were retreating before them towards their 

 woody fastnesses, when one of the females having been separated from her 

 young one among the bushes, forgot all regard to her own safety in raater- 



4 



