CHAPTER LXVI. 



A HARD CHASE OF AN ELEPHANT. 



THE following narrative of an encounter with an elephant, is one 

 cf the most interesting of Mr. Cumming's adventures in South 

 Africa. It occurs at the beginning of his second volume, as follows : 

 I remained at Sabie, hunting elephant and rhinoceros with success, 

 till the morning of the 22nd of August, when I inspanned, and 

 marched for Mangmaluky, which we reached at sundown, when I 

 drew up my wagons in an open grassy glade on a rather elevated 

 position, commanding a fine view of the bold outline of the surround 

 ing mountains. Oh the march I shot a white rhinoceros in the act 

 of charging down a. rocky face, with all the dogs in full pursuit of 

 him. The ball disabled him in the shoulder, when, pitching upon 

 his head, he described the most tremendous somersault, coming 

 down among the stones and bushes with the overwhelming violence 

 of an avalanche. 



On the 27th I cast loose my horses at earliest dawn of day, and 

 then lay half asleep for two hours, when I arose to consume coffee 

 and rhinoceros. Having breakfasted, I started with a party of na- 

 tives to search for elephants in a southerly direction. We held 

 along the gravelly bed of a periodical river, in which were abund- 

 ince of holes excavated by the elephants in quest of water. Here 

 the spoor of the rhinoceros was extremely plentiful, and in every 

 hole where they had drunk the print of the horn was visible. We 

 soon found the spoor of an old bull elephant, which led us into a 

 iense forest, where the ground was particularly unfavorable fof 



(409) 



