AN ELEPHANT IN A QUICKSAND 



But with no solid ground to serve as fulcra, the 

 branches proved of no assistance. Slowly, yet too surely 

 to admit of any doubt, the hapless beast was sinking, 

 inch by inch, its huge stature gradually diminishing in 

 height till at length the surface of the bog was almost 

 on a level with the points of its shoulder blades. 



It was pitiable to see the beast now practically 

 immovable still making desperate attempts to lift its 

 legs out of the clinging mud which gripped them as 

 tenaciously as the octopus is said to hold its victim 

 and yet we were powerless to render any aid, for with an 

 animal of this size there was nothing to be done. 



The mahouts under instructions from one of them- 

 selves, who had once witnessed a similar disaster had 

 constructed a roadway out of the branches, by which 

 they had at great risk to themselves approached the 

 struggling beast, and fastening a rope round its body, 

 had with the weight and strength of all the other 

 elephants combined attempted to draw it out of the 

 bog. 



But as well might they have tried to drag a house from 

 its foundations, as to move that unhappy beast from its 

 position where, even if built in with bricks and mortar, it 

 could scarcely have been rendered more immovable, and 

 after trying for a time, they were fain to give up the 

 attempt lest they should tear the unfortunate animal in 

 two. 



Meanwhile it continued sinking steadily, and should 

 the bog prove to be much deeper, must soon, we knew, be 

 completely engulfed, to meet a lingering death from 

 suffocation, too painful to contemplate much more to 

 witness. 



Already the strain of watching the poor brute's agonizing 

 struggles, without being able to relieve them, was telling 

 on our nerves, and presently as the beast now realizing 

 the imminence of its danger gave expression to its 

 feelings in piteous moans of anguish, we could bear the 

 scene no longer, and, as all hope of rescue was now over, 

 decided to end the animal's sufferings with a bullet. 



The question now arose as to who should should be 

 the executioner, since to kill an elephant mercifully, or 



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