330 THE RIFLE AND HOUND IN CEYLON, chap. Xii. 



We had thus only killed three elephants out of the 

 herd, and, without seeing more, we returned to the 

 horses. 



On finding them, we proceeded on our road towards 

 the ' Cave,' but had not ridden above two miles far- 

 ther when we again came upon fresh tracks of ele- 

 phants. Sending on our trackers like hounds upon 

 their path, we sat down and breakfasted under a tree. 

 We had hardly finished the last cup of coffee when the 

 trackers returned, having found another herd. They 

 were not more than half a mile distant, and they were 

 reported to be in open forest, on the banks of a deep 

 and broad river. 



Our party was altogether too large for elephant- 

 shooting, as we never could get close up to them with- 

 out being discovered. As usual, they winded us be- 

 fore we got near them, but by quick running we over- 

 took them just as they arrived on the banks of the 

 river and took to water. Wortley knocked over one 

 fellow just as he thought he was safe in running along 

 the bottom of a deep gully ; I floored his companion 

 at the same moment, thus choking up the gully, and 

 six elephants closely packed together forded the deep 

 stream. The tops of their backs and heads were alone 

 above water. I fired the four-ounce into the nape of 

 one elephant's neck as the herd crossed, and he im- 

 mediately turned over and lay foundered in the middle 

 of the river, which was sixty or seventy yards across. 



