chap. v. DANGERS OF ELEPHANT-SHOOTING. 99 



elephant, and, true to his character of a rogue, he im- 

 mediately advanced with a shrill trumpet towards me. 

 His ears were cocked, and his tail was well up ; but 

 instead of charging, as rogues generally do, with his 

 head thrown rather back and held high, which 

 renders a fiont shot very uncertain, he rather lowered 

 his head, and splashed towards me through the mud, 

 apparently despising my diminutive appearance. 



I thought it was all up with me this time ; I was 

 immovable in my bed of mud, and, instead of the 

 clean brown barrel that I could usually trust to in an 

 extremity, I raised a mass of mud to my shoulder, 

 which encased my rifle like a flannel bag. I fully ex- 

 pected it to miss fire ; no sights were visible, and I 

 had to guess the aim with the advancing elephant 

 within five yards of me. Hopelessly I pulled the 

 slippery trigger. The rifle did not even hang fire, and 

 the rogue fell into the deep bed of mud stone dead. 

 If the rifle had missed fire I must have been killed, as 

 escape would have been impossible. It was with great 

 difficulty . that I was extricated from my muddy 

 position by the joint exertions of myself and gun- 

 bearers. 



Elephants, buffaloes, and hogs are equally fond of 

 wallowing in the mud. A buffalo will gallop through 

 a swamp, hock deep, in which a horse would be utterly 

 powerless, even without a rider. Elephants can also 

 make wonderful progress through deep mud, the 



