go ELEPHANT AND BISON 



The evening before, just at sunset, two men, a 

 post-runner and the Magistrate's clerk, had come 

 in looking scared out of their wits, and told us that 

 a rogue elephant had chased them for two miles 

 and kept them up in a tree for some time. I 

 immediately asked Mr. Vernede to send two of 

 the hillmen to follow the elephant, to stop with 

 him all night, and then one of the two was to come 

 and tell us in the morning at daybreak where 

 the elephant was. Mercifully the weather im- 

 proved, and at daybreak next morning a man came 

 in to say that the elephant was grazing alone on 

 the edge of a marsh about two miles off. We got 

 off immediately, and after about three miles up and 

 down hills we got on to a sugar-loaf top, and from 

 there we saw a sight I shall never forget. I do 

 not think I could have seen less than fifty elephants. 

 There were three herds in different directions, 

 males, females and calves, but they had got our 

 wind, and soon the herds were all going in a 

 stately procession in different directions and away 

 from us. We made out, however, our solitary 

 bull. He was still feeding at the edge of the 

 marsh. Then we sat down and had a long and 

 anxious consultation as to the best way to get at 

 him. Eventually we decided to make a large 

 circuit and get to the opposite side of the marsh, 

 where there was a very large boulder of *rock, 

 almost a small hill. We also decided that the only 

 possible way I could get him, if I were prepared 

 to face the music, was to come suddenly round the 

 boulder and walk straight into the marsh as near 

 as the elephant would let me get to him, and try 

 and shoot him through the brain. I had said 



