A STAMPEDE OF ELEPHANTS 



my face with eyes closed, fearing to breathe, for I knew 

 that to lie dead still was my only hope, and for several 

 seconds after the great herd had passed I continued 

 motionless, for it seemed impossible that I could have 

 come out of such a maddened stampede uninjured. Can 

 you imagine a more exciting sport than elephant hunting ? 

 Every other class of game hunting, even when the lion 

 is the quarry, pales into insignificance besides such an 

 experience as a stampede of elephants. 



We were not long in following up, but they had already 

 dashed into the semi-darkness of the small forest and 

 out on the other side, and had got far ahead of us. On 

 reaching the huge trees and dense vegetation it seemed 

 incredible that elephants had been there not many 

 minutes before and had passed through the masses of 

 creepers that hung on every side ; the elasticity of the 

 galleries of creepers, tendrils, lianas, the bush and other 

 dense growth was so great that everything seemed to 

 have shot back into place as though it were hung on 

 spring hinges. Giant tendrils and monkey ropes hung 

 from aloft as though nothing had been disturbed; but 

 underfoot, where dry rotten leaves and twigs had been 

 trampled into the muddy soil, there was no doubt as to 

 whether the elephants had been there, for their huge 

 feet had sunk deep in the undergrowth and left their 

 mark in the soft soil. Without axes we were utterly 

 helpless in our attempts to follow. 



That night our camp was pitched close to the scene 

 of tumult that we had gone through in the day. I 

 remember waking up and hearing the trumpeting of 

 elephants all around us and uncomfortably near, in 

 spite of the blazing fires of the camp guard who sat 

 looking wistfully into the darkness of the night. It is 

 remarkable that elephants invariably take hills for their 

 landmarks and travel from one to another. 



That day we travelled to a village some twenty miles 



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