72 Incidents of Foreign Field Sport. 



bore, 1 with very short barrels, a wonderfully handy 

 weapon, and w r ith which I killed a lot of game. We 

 had not advanced very far when we came upon the 

 usual mound of ordure, with fresh droppings upon it, 

 so we knew the animal could not be far off. Our two 

 elephants now began to show decided symptoms of 

 funk, but the mahouts kept them straight. At last, 

 at the edge of the "jeel," partially covered by a 

 bush, I distinguished the body of a rhinoceros. It 

 was standing broadside on, but the head was turned 

 in our direction with the ears cocked forward, listening 

 to the noise our mounts made splashing through the 

 grass and water. Neither the mahout nor the 

 elephant saw it, so I touched the man on the head, 

 which was always a signal for him to promptly pull 

 up the " hathee." I could distinguish only a form ; 

 no vital part was visible, but about where I thought 

 the shoulder should be, I let fly. On the smoke 

 clearing aw r ay a very large animal rushed into the 

 " jeel" and I fired the left barrel into its shoulder. 

 On receiving this shot, which was well placed, the 

 mammoth pulled up and faced me. I dropped the 

 discharged weapon and had just time to seize one of 

 the two-grooved rifles, when with a shriek the monster 

 charged. I gave it the contents of both barrels at 

 a distance not exceeding ten yards. This caused it 

 to swerve, shrieking loudly, and rush away. All 

 this time my elephant, apparently paralysed with fear, 

 had not moved, but the noise the pachyderm made 

 was irresistible, so my " hathee " broke away from the 

 mahout and ran off in a direction the very opposite 

 of that taken by our antagonist, and went fully a 

 1 By Lyell of Aberdeen. 



