286 The Rifle and Hound in Ceylon. 



On finding them we proceeded on our road toward 

 the " Cave," but had not ridden above two miles far- 

 ther when we again came upon fresh tracks of ele- 

 phants. Sending on our trackers like hounds upon 

 their path, we sat down and breakfasted under a tree. 

 We had hardly finished the last cup of coffee when the 

 trackers returned, having found another herd. They 

 were not more than half a mile distant, and they were 

 reported to be in open forest, on the banks of a deep 

 and broad river. 



Our party was altogether too large for elephant-shoot- 

 ing, as we never could get close up to them without 

 being discovered. As usual, they winded us before we 

 got near them, but by quick running we overtook them 

 just as they arrived on the banks of the river and took 

 to water. Wortley knocked over one fellow just as he 

 thought he was safe in running along the bottom of a 

 deep gully ; I floored his companion at the same mo- 

 ment, thus choking up the gully, and six elephants 

 closely packed together forded the deep stream. The 

 tops of their backs and heads were alone above water. 

 I fired the four-ounce into the nape of one elephant's 

 neck as the herd ci'ossed, and he immediately turned 

 over and lay foundered in the middle of the river, which 

 was sixty or seventy yards across. In the mean time, 

 Palliser and Wortley kept up a -regular volley, but no 

 effects could be observed until the herd reached and be- 

 gun to ascend the steep bank on the opposite side. I 

 had reloaded the four-ounce, and the heavy battery now 

 begun to open to concert with the general volley as the 

 herd scrambled up the precipitous bank. Several ele- 

 phants fell, but recovered themselves and disappeared. 



