88 Incidents of Foreign Field Sport. 



tasks on which these almost reasoning slaves may be 

 employed, can hardly imagine how puzzling a matter 

 it is to distinguish them amongst the dark shadows 

 and irregular outlines that fill up any portion of a 

 landscape in their forest haunts. I was for some 

 moments, it seemed to me hours, waiting in long grass 

 and reeds within a few feet, not yards, of the head of 

 a fine elephant, without being able to get a satisfac- 

 tory shot at him, or even to see more than an indis- 

 tinct dusky outline of form, or a dark shadow as his 

 trunk was raised aloft, when the mighty beast, a 

 magnificent tusker, suspected that he scented mischief. 

 Having at length made sure that there was something 

 uncanny near him, he uttered a shrill cry and wheeled 

 round on the very spot on which he stood, without 

 exposing any more vulnerable target than his enormous 

 hind quarters, at which it would have been wicked and 

 wanton cruelty to fire, rushed down the hill, followed 

 by his family (eight or ten unwieldy wives and sturdy 

 children) whose progress, as they crashed through 

 the dense underwood of long grass, caused a noise 

 sufficient to startle any one whose nerves were not 

 tightly braced, and which my pen is certainly too weak 

 to describe." General Hamilton (" Velvet foot ") also 

 writes : " On another occasion I was * blown ' at by a 

 wild elephant, who threw her trunk out from behind 

 the jungle lining the narrow path along which we 

 were running to intercept the herd, and blew her nose 

 so suddenly in the chest and face of the leading man, 

 that he fell back right upon me. We had cut this 

 elephant off from its companions, and having a calf 

 to take care of, she had loitered behind. In this case 

 we noticed what I have alluded to, the wonderful and 



