A Hard Day's Work. 199 



if he is there, as he keeps the little troop of gun-bearers 

 in their places in a most methodical manner. 



At break of day on the following morning we were 

 upon the tracks of the two elephants, but a slight shower 

 during the night had so destroyed them that we found it 

 was impossible to follow therruup. We therefore deter- 

 mined to examine the country thoroughly for fresh 

 tracks, and we accordingly passed over many miles of 

 ground, but to little purpose, as none were to be seen. 



We at length discovered fresh tracks of a herd in 

 thick thorny jungle, which was too dense to enter, but 

 marking their position, we determined to send out 

 watchers on the following day to track them into better 

 country. Having killed a deer, we started him off with 

 some coolies that we had taken with us on this chance, 

 and we continued our route till 3 p. m. We had lost 

 our way, and, not having any guide, we had no notion 

 of the position of the tents : the heat of the day had been 

 intense, and not having breakfasted, we were rather 

 anxious about the direction. Strolling through this 

 beautiful expanse of park country, we directed our 

 course for a large rocky mountain, at a few miles dis- 

 tance, at the base of which I knew lay the route from 

 the tent to Nielgalla. To our great satisfaction we 

 found the path at about 4 p. m., and we walked briskly 

 along at the foot of the mountain in the direction of our 

 encampment, which was about four miles distant. 



We had just arrived at an angle of the mountain, 

 which, in passing, we were now leaving to our left, 

 when we suddenly halted, our attention having been 

 arrested by the loud roaring of elephants in a jungle at 

 the foot of the mountain, within a quarter of a mile of 

 us. The roaring continued at intervals, reverberating 



