CRITICAL POSITION. 141 



easier to see as well as walk. At last the elephants 

 were heard by all of us, quite close, and appeared to 

 be moving quietly along, crushing the dry reeds under 

 their ponderous feet as they w^ent. A little nearer, 

 and the backs of some of the hindmost were to be seen. 

 I saw, however, no chance of getting a shot at them 

 — at least till they got into some grass, as I could not 

 pass on to head them while in these strong reeds. At 

 last the wdiole herd pulled up short, and as I heard 

 several of them sniffing the air through their trunks, 

 my heart sank within me, for I felt I was discovered, 

 and the chance of a shot gone. Fearing they would 

 be off in a minute, I hastened up to them as they stood. 

 I was standing within twenty yards of them, and 

 could see the backs of many through the reeds, when 

 one of their number turned sharply round, and ap- 

 proached us quietly with his trunk up. In an instant 

 I was flat on the ground, beckoning to Moloka and 

 the men to imitate my example, which they quickly 

 did. On came the elephant, his trunk still up, and feel- 

 ing about. I knew it was useless to fire ; and I could 

 not imagine what was going to happen. It would 

 not do to let him walk quietly over us, and still to 

 fire at him then would be without any hopes of suc- 

 cess, with the almost certainty of being followed by a 

 charge, which I did not particularly care about in this 

 kind of jungle, where one could scarcely move. How- 

 ever, while I spent a second or two looking at both 

 sides of the question, the elephant pulled up, standing 

 straight on to me, not more than eight yards off, every 

 now and then feeling about with his trunk, and then 

 letting it hang. 



