1U IMPOUND THE ELEPHANTS. 



filled-in trench which had reached from the channel to the river, but which 

 was now refilled to allow them to pass on into the kheddah. At length they 

 were forced to proceed by the shots fired, and by firebrands carried through 

 the paths in the thicket. The bright eyes of the fair watchers near the gate 

 were at length gratified by seeing one great elephant after another pass the 

 Rubicon. After a short pause, owing to a stand being made by some of the 

 most refractory, the last of the herd passed in with a rush, closely followed 

 into the inner enclosure by a frantic beater waving a firebrand. P. and I 

 came up third, in time to save any accident from the fall of the barrier. C, 

 who was perched on a high branch of the gate-tree, cut the rope, and 

 amidst the cheers of all, the valuable prize of fifty-three elephants was 

 secured to the Mysore Government. 



I often think of the rapture of that moment ! How warmly we 

 " Sahibs " shook hands ! How my trackers hugged my legs, and prostrated 

 themselves to P. and B. An hour of such varied and high excitement as 

 elephant-catching is surely worth a lifetime of uneventful routine in towns ! 

 Sore disappointment had been undergone by myself and men. Many 

 tedious days and nights had we laboured against discouraging incidents 

 and hardships. But all was forgotten in the success of that moment. 

 "We lost no time, however, amidst our self-gratulations, in thoroughly secur- 

 ing our prize. Guards were immediately posted round the kheddah, and 

 my own tent pitched outside the gate ; but the elephants gave no further 

 trouble. The jungle inside was dense, and they kept so quiet that, large 

 number though there was, we could scarcely see anything of them from the 

 outside for some hours, until they began to move, when they soon trampled 

 down much of the jungle. They never attempted to cross the trench. The 

 most noisy animal of the herd was the little albino calf, which had broken 

 its bonds during the second drive and made its way with the others into 

 the kheddah, and which continued to roar lustily for its mother, and in pain 

 at the kicks which were freely administered to it by the other elephants 

 when it endeavoured to push its way amongst them. If the writers who 

 have stated that female elephants suckle and tend each other's calves indis- 

 criminately were but subjected to half the pummelling the unfortunate 

 orphan underwent the first day and night in the enclosure, they would 

 have but a poor opinion of indiscriminate suckling, I imagine. 



On the day after the drive we commenced the work of securing the wild 

 ones. Out of seventeen tame elephants belonging to the Maharajah and 

 Commissariat Department which I had in camp, ten of the most steady and 

 courageous males and females were told off for work in the enclosure, and 

 the rest to bring fodder for the captives. Water was supplied to them 



