THE HUNTING-GROUNDS OF THE OLD WORLD. VIX 



stunned and bleeding, the elephant turned upon Googooloo, who escaped by 

 swinging himself up by the hanging branch of a tree : 



"The elephant, balked of his victim, rushed wildly backwards and 

 forwards two or three times, as if searching for him, and then, with a hoarse 

 scream of disappointment, came tearing down the bed of the nullah. I was 

 directly in his path, and powerless to get out of the way. A moment more 

 and I saw that I was perceived, for down he charged on me with a fiendish 

 roar of vengeance. With diflSculty I raised my rifle, and, taking a steady aim 

 between his eyes, pulled the trigger— it was my only chance. When the 

 smoke cleared away, I perceived a mighty mass lying close to me. At last 

 I had conquered. Soon after this I must have sunk in a swoon, for I hardly 

 remember anythirg until I found myself lying in my hut, and B leaning 



One cannot help admiring the adroitness with which this accomplished 

 strategist shifts his tactics. Once he creeps up behind an elephant and 

 disables him from charging by firing two barrels up his raised leg; at 

 another time he shoots an enormous fish with a ramrod, having a log-line 

 attached to it. Now he awaits and drops, at six paces' distance, a buU- 

 bison, much larger than the one which now stands in the Strand as a trophy 

 of Mr. Berkeley's prowess, being nineteen hands high at the shoulder ; now 

 he stabs to death a wild bull, sixteen hands high, which has just capsized 

 himself and his horse. 



A tigress strikes down "poor Ali, who, notwithstanding my orders, 

 had separated himself from the rest. Although I felt I was too 

 late to save him, I determined he should be amply revenged," and 

 accordingly the infuriated animal is despatched with a single shot. 



K is chased by an elephant, and " would have had no chance if he had 



not been able to dodge him by running round trees. I could not, for the 

 moment, get a fair shot at any vulnerable part ; but, seeing that the 

 elephant had got so near that he could almost have reached him with his 

 trunk, I let drive a double shot at his ear, and brought him to his knees, 



which gave K time to clamber up into a tree. It was a very near touch, 



for he was breathless, and another few seconds would have seen him 

 trampled under foot ; as it was, I was able to despatch the tusker with my 

 second gun, which Googooloo handed me just as he began to recover him- 

 self and was getting on his knees." 



We have no space for the death-scenes of the Neilgherry tiger and the 

 Circassian bear, though among the most spirited descriptions in the volume, 

 or for the ruse by which he turns the superstitions of his followers to 

 account in overcoming the dread of the malaria on the Anamulai Mountains. 

 Nothing seems to come amiss to him. If he loses his game over a pre- 

 cipice, he submits to be dangled down by a rope tUl he reaches the ledge 

 on which it is lying. If his baggage-pony is carried off by Circassian 

 banditti, he overtakes them while their trail is yet fresh, recovers the 

 stolen goods by a cou;p de main, brands his prisoners with a heated horse- 



