98 The Wild Elephant 



elephant, almost at the top of their speed, over glades 

 covered with stunted grass, where the eye of a stranger 

 would fail to discover a trace of its passage, and on 

 through forests strewn with dry leaves, where it seems 

 impossible to perceive a footstep. Here they are guided 

 by a bent or broken twig, or by a leaf dropped from the 

 animal's mouth, on which the pressure of a tooth may be 

 detected. If at fault, they fetch a circuit like a setter, 

 till lighting on some fresh marks, they go a-head again 

 with renewed vigour. So delicate is the sense of smell 

 in the elephant, and so indispensable is it to go against 

 the wind in approaching him, that on those occasions 

 when the wind is so still that its direction cannot be 

 otherwise discerned, the Panickeas will suspend the film 

 of a gossamer to determine it and shape their course 

 accordingly. 



They are enabled by the inspection of the footmarks, 

 when impressed in soft clay, to describe the size as well 

 as the number of a herd before it is seen ; the height of 

 an elephant at the shoulder being as nearly as possible 

 twice the circumference of his fore foot.^ 



On overtaking the game their courage is as conspicuous 

 as their sagacity. If they have confidence in the sports- 

 man for whom they are finding, they will advance to the 

 very heel of the elephant, slap him on the quarter, and 



» Previous to the death of the female the circumference of the fore foot. In 



elephant in the Zoological Gardens, an African elephant killed by Sir S. 



in the Regent's Park, in 1851, Mr. Baker, this proportion did not hold 



Mitchell, the Secretary, caused mea- good, as the circumference of the fore 



surements to be accurately made, and foot was 4 feet iij inches, and the 



found the statement of the Singhalese height at the shoulder 10 feet 6J in- 



hunters to be strictly correct, the height ches. (Baker, The Albert Nyanza, 



at the shoulders being precisely twice vol. ii. p. 10.) 



