OF WILD ANIMALS 



105 



spy; communicate intelligence by signs; retreat in orderly 

 silence from a lurking danger, and systematically march, in 

 single file, like the jungle tribes of men. 



Once having approached to within fifty yards of the strag- 

 glers of a herd of about thirty wild elephants, which was scat- 

 tered over about four acres of very open forest and quietly 

 feeding, two individuals of the herd on the side nearest us sud- 

 denly suspected danger. One of them elevated his trunk, with 

 the tip bent forward, and smelled the air from various points 

 of the compass. A moment later an old elephant left the herd 

 and started straight for our ambush, scenting the air with 

 upraised trunk as he slowly and noiselessly advanced. We 

 instantly retreated, unobserved and unheard. The elephant 

 advanced until he reached the identical spot where we had a 

 moment before been concealed. He paused, and stood motion- 

 less as a statue for about two minutes, then wheeled about and 

 quickly but noiselessly rejoined the herd. In less than half a 

 minute the whole herd was in motion, heading directly away 

 from us, and moving very rapidly, but without the slightest 

 noise. The huge animals simply vanished like shadows into 

 the leafy depths of the forest. Before proceeding a quarter of 

 a mile, the entire herd formed in single file and continued strictly 

 in that order for several miles. Like the human dwellers in the 

 jungle, the elephants know that the easiest and most expeditious 

 way for a large body of animals to traverse a tangled forest is for 

 the leader to pick the way, while all the others follow in his foot- 

 steps. 



In strong contrast with the stealthy and noiseless manner in 

 which elephants steal away from a lurking danger, or an ambush 

 discovered, from an open attack accompanied with the noise of 

 fire-arms they rush away at headlong speed, quite regardless of 

 the noise they make. On one occasion a herd which I was 

 designing to attack, and had approached to within forty yards, 

 as its members were feeding in some thick bushes, discovered my 

 presence and retreated so silently that they had been gone five 



