chap. xi. EXCITEMENT OF ELEPHANT-SHOOTING. 253 



every puff of smoke. It is a curious sight, and one of 

 the grandest in the world, to see a fine rogue elephant 

 knocked over in full charge. His onset appears so irre- 

 sistible, and the majesty of his form so overwhelming, 

 that I have frequently almost mistrusted the power of 

 man over such a beast ; but one shot well placed, with 

 a heavy charge of powder behind the ball, reduces him 

 in an instant to a mere heap of flesh. 



One of the most disgusting sights is a dead elephant 

 four or five days after the fatal shot. In a tropical 

 climate, where decomposition proceeds with such won- 

 derful rapidity, the effect of the sun upon such a mass 

 can be readily understood. The gas generated in the 

 inside distends the carcass to an enormous size, until 

 it at length bursts and becomes in a few hours after- 

 wards one living heap of maggots. Three weeks after 

 an elephant is killed, nothing remains but his bones and 

 a small heap of dried cases, from which the flies have 

 emerged when the time arrived for them to change 

 from the form of maggots. The sight of the largest 

 of the animal creation being thus reduced from life to 

 nothingness within so short a space of time is an 

 instance of the perishable tenure of mortality which 

 cannot fail to strike the most unthinking. The 

 majesty, the power, and the sagacity of the enormous 

 beast are scattered in the myriads of flies which have 

 fed upon him. 



It is a delightful change after a sporting trip of a 



