CHAPTER XVII 



INDIA might well be described as a land of continual 

 surprises and excitement, for events do certainly seem to 

 succeed each other there with marvellous rapidity, and 

 sometimes with a suddenness more startling than agree- 

 able. Still on the particular morning I am referring to, 

 we had gone through so many exciting moments, chasing 

 and being chased by a rhinoceros we had been hunting, 

 that we scarcely expected nor did we wish for any 

 further excitement that day. 



Nevertheless on our return to camp about midday, we 

 had hardly reached the tents when we were greeted with 

 the startling information that of the two elephants sent 

 to fetch " char a," or green food for the rest, one of them 

 had blundered into a quicksand, and was stuck hard and 

 fast. To add to the calamity, the elephant in question 

 turned out to be the most valuable animal of the lot a 

 huge, tuskless male, belonging to the Forest Department, 

 and worth about three thousand rupees. 



The scene of the disaster was an open piece of marsh- 

 land, surrounded by a belt of cane jungle, over two miles 

 from the camp, and hearing that the other elephants, 

 with their mahouts and grass-cutters, were all there, we 

 hurried to the spot to render what aid we could. 



We found the poor beast already buried nearly up 

 to its belly in the bog trumpeting with terror and swaying 

 from side to side in its frantic efforts to get free, but only 

 to sink deeper with each attempt it made. 



The mahouts had divested it of its heavy load of 

 branches, some of which with the instinct of self-pre- 

 servation it had evidently dragged under its feet while 

 the men had pushed others under its stomach hoping 

 they would prevent the animal sinking deeper. 

 136 



