NATURAL HISTORY. 



m 



ation was far from laughable. The 

 elephant often attempted to rise, 

 but was as often laid flat by his 

 antagonist, and at length with 

 such force, that I was thrown se- 

 veral yards into the lake, in a state 

 of utter stupefaction — luckily fall- 

 ing on some willows, I was saved 

 from drowning. I was not sorry, 

 on recovery, to find myself out of 

 reach of the horn of my furious 

 enemy, and of the shots of my 

 friends, who, despairing of my 

 fescape, fired without ceremony. 

 Their balls struck the monster's 

 body in several places without 

 producing any effect, though from 

 four-ounce rifles. At last a hicky 

 one broke a large flake from his 

 horn, and caused him to make off, 

 turning through the thickets with 

 astonishing strengthand swiftness. 

 We traced his footsteps for some 

 miles, when being convinced that 

 he had taken to tlie forest, we re- 

 turned to look after the others, 

 determined to search for him on a 

 future day. On our way back, we 

 found the young one we had^ 

 wounded in the morning lying 

 dead ; both must have been very 

 young, for their horns were 

 scarcely perceptible, and no scales 

 appeared in their breasts or shoul- 

 ders. It was now past noon, and 

 we had little hopes of finding the 

 others ; when, on rounding a 

 point of the lake, we roused them 

 again, and after a chase of more 

 than three hours, killed two, a 

 male and female. They were not 

 so bold now as we had reason to 

 expect. They seemed to have lost 

 their courage with their leader, to 

 whom they were very inferior in 

 size, Vjut still their dimensions as- 

 tonislied us not a little ; the larg- 

 est of them was above six feet 



high, and stronger in proportioh 

 than any elephant I ever saW ; the 

 day Avas too far spent to admit of 

 our taking a sketch of them, at 

 which we were much vexed, foT 

 hitherto, I believe, theyhaVe bfeen 

 vei-y unfaithfully represented. No 

 elephants but males df superidr 

 courage should be employed in 

 this desperate sport. We have 

 another wild animal in this neigh- 

 bourhood as little known a? the 

 rhinoceros. The natives consider 

 it of the elk kind, btit it has no 

 characteristic of this or any df thfe 

 species of deer I havfe seen or 

 read of ; the horns of the male are 

 remarkably thick and short; in 

 every other respect they resemble 

 more an Engli.'sh brindled bull. 

 They are exceedingly shy and so- 

 litary ; seldom seen but oti a bare 

 inaccessible rock. 



Camp, NE. Frontier, May 1815. 



EXPLOITS OF A LlOiJ SHOOTING 

 PARTY OF ENGLISH GENTLEMEN, 



AtBarcda, 26th June, 1816. 

 (From the same.) 



A report was brought by a ctil- 

 tivator, aboiit eight o'clock yester- 

 day morning, of two large tigeris 

 having taken up their abode the 

 preceding night in a garden, ■svithiii 

 a mile df the west extremity of the 

 town. The gentlemen of the re- 

 sidency, after a hasty breakfast, 

 anxiously prepared rifles, fuzees, 

 and muskets, and attended by ten 

 Sepoys of the Resident's escort, 

 went forth in search of the ani- 

 mals. The place in which they 

 were said to have taken shelter 

 was covered by bushes of the mo- 

 gri flower plant extremely thick, 

 and standing about four feet high, 



with 



