A Musical Herd. 213 



open country, we entered a fine forest, in which the 

 herd had retired ; but our hopes of meeting them in this 

 favorable ground were suddenly damped by arriving at 

 a dense chnar jungle in the very heart of the forest. 

 This che'nar extended for some acres, and rose like a 

 hedge, iform ing a sudden wall of thorns, which effectu- 

 ally checked our advance. The elephants had retired 

 to this secure retreat, and having winded us they kept 

 up an uninterrupted roaring. I never heard such a 

 musical herd : the deep and thunder-like growls, com- 

 bined with the shrill trumpet and loud roars, as they all 

 joined in concert, had a particularly grand effect, and 

 a novice in elephant-shooting would have felt his heart 

 beat in double time. 



There was a rogue consorting with his herd, and it 

 was necessary to be particularly cautious in the attack. 

 It was impossible to enter such thick jungle, and we 

 waited for some hours in the forest, close to the edge of 

 the chdnar, trying every dodge in vain to induce the 

 herd to quit their stronghold. They were continually 

 on the qui vive. Sometimes a tremendous rush would 

 be heard in the thick jungle as the herd would charge 

 toward us ; but they invariably stopped just upon the 

 borders, and would not venture into the open forest. 

 On one occasion I thought we had them : they rushed 

 to the edge of the thick jungle, and suddenly filed off to 

 the left and halted in a line within a few feet of the 

 forest. We were within six paces of them, concealed 

 behind the trunks of several large trees, from which we 

 could discover the dim forms of six elephants through 

 the screen of thorns, which had a similar effect to that 

 produced by looking through a gauze veil. For some 

 moments they stood in an attitude of intense attention^ 



