Elephant's spoor. 93 



swamp, which bore traces of having very lately 

 been frequented by elephant, as it was covered in 

 all directions with spoor varying from a few hours 

 to three days old. On further examination I found 

 signs that led me to suppose that the herd had 

 there passed part of the night, for in two or three 

 places I noticed marks of their having lain down 

 on their broad sides ; and one must have been a 

 bull, as I distinguished the indentation of a large 

 tusk in the soil. As neither the Doctor nor ihe 

 Ghoorka had yet killed an elephant, and both were 

 most desirous of doing so, Fred and I agreed to 

 reserve our fire, so as to give them the first chance ; 

 and to obviate the necessity of having more people 

 about us than necessary, each slung a second gun 

 on his shoulder, Chineah and Googooloo, our best 

 trackers, only taking up the trail, whilst the rest 

 waited for our return. Roused to fresh exertion 

 by the prospect of such noble game, we got over 

 the ground very quickly, and following the trail up 

 the side of the hill, at last got on some large teak 

 forest, where we found much freslier spoor, and 

 unmistakable signs that indicated the immediate 



