198 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



down on the path, only a few yards away, the Blat 

 Elephant. 



It was sound asleep. Flat on its side, it had its 

 head on the ground, and all four feet stretched out. 

 It lay across the path with its back to me, and rattans 

 and forest - creepers so hemmed it in that its head 

 was hidden on one side and its hind -quarters on the 

 other by undergrowth and tangled foliage of every 

 description. The two men stood still behind me, 

 while I crept forward a few paces and knelt down 

 under the dead tree to take a steady aim. The 

 animal was not more than fifteen yards away, but 

 the gaunt ridge of its backbone and the nape of its 

 neck were all that I could see. To right and left 

 were great tangled masses of rattans, whose stems 

 were sheathed in great thorny coverings and whose 

 every delicate tendril carried stems of clinging hooks ; 

 and I dared not attempt to make a de'tour to get a 

 shot at the elephant's forehead. I knew by experi- 

 ence how alert it was, and that I should not be 

 able to move more than a few yards before it would 

 hear me. I took a steady aim, therefore, at the last 

 vertebra at the nape of its neck, expecting the bullet 

 to smash its backbone and perhaps to rake into its 

 brain. I fired, and all was still. 



Peering under the smoke of my 10-bore, I saw the 

 animal lying motionless. I waited a few seconds, and 

 then looked round towards the two Malays. The 

 week before, shooting in the Kuantan valley, I had 

 killed a fine tusker elephant with a single bullet in 

 the brain. This made two consecutive elephants with 

 two consecutive bullets ; and the second of them was 



