192 HUNTING IN THE JUNGLE. 



skill. The two elephants were led m by their native 

 keepers, and were by all odds the finest specimens I 

 had ever seen. Of unusual size, with black, shining 

 coats, eyes full of fire, tusks long and perfect, they 

 advanced with an air of assurance that promised a 

 tremendous struggle. At first they approached each 

 other at a rapid pace until within a few feet, when 

 they stopped and, at the command of their riders, 

 saluted in good Marquis of Queensbury style. This 

 done, their keepers lay dow^i upon their respective 

 elephant's backs, and held tightly to the girdle while 

 the fight began. 



The tw^o elephants sprang upon each other with a shock 

 that threw them on their hind legs, their trunks up and 

 intertwined, swaying back and forth in, for the riders at 

 least, a most luipleasant way. The plucky fellows clung 

 fast, however, and encouraged their favorites with voice 

 and hand. The tactics of the pair seemed to be to try 

 to force the weaker, or the less adroit, backward into 

 the river, and after an hour of intense effort and strug- 

 gle, one of the elephants had so far lost ground that he 

 was compelled to jump into the river to avoid being 

 throw^n in. This was supposed to end the combat ; but 

 his adversary insisted on following him across the river, 

 in spite of the united efforts of the Nabob's servants 

 and tamers. The conflict was evidently to be renewed 

 on the other bank, where the first animal had taken a 

 favorable position, from which for fully thirty minutes 



