THE ELEPHANT, THE GIANT OE THE EOREST 



he was wounded, and with a rapidity that the reader would 

 think impossible by such a big and clumsy beast as the ele- 

 phant, he again whirled around and ran off toward the 

 dense forest to our left. Before he had taken many strides, 

 however, a second bullet crashed into his left side, fol- 

 lowed by furious trumpeting for a moment, and then 

 the giant disappeared, the high grass and bush hiding 

 the beast completely from our view, as he ran toward the 

 Gojito Mountain slopes, crashing down trees and bushes 

 in his way. 



Now followed a most wearying chase for hours, up 

 and down hill, over streams and through jungles, which 

 would have been almost impenetrable if we had not been 

 able to follow in the tracks of the forest giant, who was 

 bleeding profusely from the two wounds. It seemed as if 

 our pursuit was almost useless, and soon the men had be- 

 come so tired out that they begged me to give up the chase. 

 I almost felt like doing this myself, and when we had come 

 down to another little stream, I decided to take a rest there 

 for a moment, while I could discuss with the men what 

 would be the wisest thing to do. 



As we sat down to rest, we heard the trumpeting of 

 the elephant, and, looking up, saw on the mountain side, 

 some five hundred yards away, the magnificent beast, his 

 two large tusks glittering in the sunlight! This was the 

 first time we had been able to see the whole size of the 

 elephant, and not before that moment had I known that we 

 had been tracking an unusually large " tusker." This sight 

 gave us all new courage, and on we went, swifter than 

 before, in his pursuit. After another half hour we had 

 evidently come up a good deal closer to the elephant, and 



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