HEAVY RAIN. 213 



there again during the night ; so everything was got ready for following him 

 on the morrow. 



Next morning I had just risen, an hour before daylight, when news 

 of him was brought in by two Kurrabas, who had left him standing in 

 their clearing close to the main road, feeding on the ragi crop which they 

 had been guarding. They had started at 4 a.m., and after making a cir- 

 cuit to pass the elephant, had come five miles through jungle infested by 

 wild animals, with only a torch of dry bamboo, to give me the information. 

 As soon as it was daylight we set off down the main road for the Kurrabas' 

 clearing, where we found that not only the rogue, but another elephant also, 

 known by the Kurrabas to be a nucckna, or tuskless male, and a frequent 

 companion of the rogue's, had grazed about for some hours. They had left 

 at daylight, crossing the road into the forest to the north of it. 



My battery consisted of three breech-loading rifles — viz., a single C.F. 

 spherical-ball No. 4-bore, by Lang & Sons ; a double C.F. No. 1 2 Forsyth's 

 spherical-ball rifle, by W. W. Greener ; and a double 16 -bore rifle, by Purdey. 

 The two Kurrabas were to track, and Jaffer and another man carried my 

 spare rifles. 



About nine o'clock we got up to the elephants. They had by that time 

 located themselves in thick cover for the day. It would have been difficult 

 for us to move about in such stuff; and escape by flight, if attacked in it, would 

 have been impossible. After some recent experience I had had witli an 

 elephant in a somewhat similar place, I thought it unadvisable to follow the 

 pair into their stronghold, so we sat down to wait till they should quit it 

 of their own accord. It began to rain heavily, and the noise made by the 

 downpour on the broad leaves of the teak-trees was so great that we could 

 not hear the elephants breaking branches, though they were close at hand. 

 We sheltered ourselves from the pouring storm as well as we could, cower- 

 ing at the foot of a large tree, and keeping a look-out lest the elephants 

 should come in our direction. 



The rain continued without intermission for six hours. The sandwiches 

 I had brought with me for breakfast were reduced to pulp. I was wet to the 

 skin, and it was no easy matter to keep even the cartridges dry. I was amused 

 at the Kurrabas' attempts to keep themselves somewhat less moist than they 

 would otherwise have been. They tacked three or four broad teak-leaves 

 together with thorns, so as to form a rude hat ; this kept a portion of the 

 heavy droppings from the trees from their shoulders as they crouched on 

 the ground, hugging themselves in their shivering arms. 



At last the rain ceased, and wiping the rifles as dry as possible we pro- 

 ceeded to look for the elephants' marks. They had fed close to us for some 



