A TWO MONTHS 1 LEAVE IN THE MALAY PENINSULA. 15 



have been, was some five paces to my left. The moment he 

 appeared, Houssan, contrary to his instructions — though perhaps 

 in this instance it saved his life, for the elephant was almost 

 over him — fired a barrel of my 14-bore into his temple. C. 

 caught sight of him, and fired almost at the same moment, the 

 ball fortunately reaching his brain and closing his account at 

 once. I never even got a glimpse of this elephant till he was 

 in the act of falling, after receiving the finishing shot. He, or 

 rather she (for it was a cow) was a fresh one, but had an old 

 bullet wound in her stern, which accounted for her being so 

 determinedly vicious, though the solitary elephants are always 

 more or less dangerous. In this case I could probe the wound 

 almost to the length of my steel ramrod, and eventually we cut 

 out a small round brass bullet. We now tried for some time to 

 regain the track of the wounded elephant, but in vain, and 

 returned to the tongkong, seeing on the way numerous prints of 

 buffalo, those of a rhinoceros and of a tiger, the latter very 

 fresh, but we could not carry it far. 



The next morning (Sept. 25) we made a final attempt at 

 getting a shot at a buffalo — again no success. We then moved 

 down the river, landing each morning, and working hard ; but 

 we saw nothing in the way of elephants till 



September 30. — Landed on the left bank of the river, in- 

 tending to cross a neck of land where the winding of the river 

 made a kind of peninsula. After half an hour's walk we came 

 across the fresh track of a single elephant, and another half- 

 hour brought us up to him. He winded us, however, and was 

 off before we could get a shot at him, starting with a roar and 

 a grunt like a pig. We followed as quick as we could, but it 

 took two hours' hard going to get near him, for he was deter- 

 mined to bolt, and not to fight. When we did come up to him 

 he was trying to force his way through a thick clump of youn^ 

 trees ; but as soon as he became aware of our approach, he o- a ve 

 up the attempt, and was rushing round them, when we o-ave 

 him two longish shots, in hopes of stopping him, or inducino- 

 him to fight. He was a splendid bull elephant, or elephant 



