XV BISON, BEAR, AND ELEPHANT 179 



eter and lantana, except when shooting along a 

 track, the maximum range of a rifle bullet may be 

 taken as five yards. 



Our first day's work was all in eter and lantana, 

 in a big patch of which D.-D.'s shikaris had located 

 a large and well-known tusker that frequented 

 that neighbourhood. We followed this brute for 

 hours, and heard him rumbling but never saw 

 him. Then, unknowingly, we changed on to a 

 rogue elephant which kept company with the big 

 tusker. The next time we got close this brute 

 trumpeted and went off. We ran along the trail 

 in the lantana, for darkness threatened. Suddenly 

 the whole track was darkened by the mass of the 

 charging rogue, trunk upraised, mouth open, 

 absolutely silent, and looking like the side of a 

 house made of gutta-percha. Luckily one shot 

 in the head from D.-D. turned the beast, and I, 

 for one, was glad. I was too slow to fire. D.-D.'s 

 shot was purely in self-defence and did no real 

 damage, for we went to the spot next day, found 

 the rogue had gone right away, and later heard 

 of him in good health. 



Where there was no eter or lantana the grass 

 was generally high, except in the Cardamum 

 forests. There had been unusually late and 

 heavy rains. 



The work was severe. Our longest day started 

 with a two-mile walk ; then we picked up tracks 

 of a good tusker, followed him fifteen miles, and 

 had a five-mile trek home again. 



I spent five days on the Peryar, and was im- 

 mensely struck, not only with the engineering 

 work on it, but by its beauty, its winding channels, 



