chap. x. DEATH OF THE HERD. 229 



perfectly motionless, lest we should scare them before 

 the whole herd had closed up. In about a minute, a 

 dense mass of elephants had collected round the two 

 leaders, who were all gazing at us ; and thinking this 

 a favourable moment, I gave the word, and we pushed 

 towards them through the high grass. A portion of 

 the herd immediately wheeled round and retreated 

 as we advanced, but five elephants, including the two 

 who had first discovered us, formed in a compact line 

 abreast, and thrashing the long grass to the right and 

 left with their trunks, with ears cocked and tails up, 

 they came straight at us. We pushed forward to 

 meet them, but they still came on in a perfect line, till 

 within ten paces of us. 



A cloud of smoke hung over the high grass as the 

 rifles cracked in rapid succession, and the Jive elephants 

 lay dead in the same order as they had advanced. 

 The spare guns had been beautifully handed ; and 

 running between the carcasses, we got into the lane 

 that the remaining portion of the herd had made by 

 crushing the high grass in their retreat. We were up 

 with them in a few moments ; down went one ! then 

 another ! up he got again, almost immediately recover- 

 ing from V.'s shot ; down he went again ! as I floored 

 him with my last barrel. 



I was now unloaded, as I had only two of my 

 double-barrelled No. 10 rifles out that day, but the 

 chase was so exciting that I could not help following 



