JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 59 



her majesty's Ceylon Rifles, you know the man al- 

 luded to. 



These pages, I regret, can never reach the eye that 

 never missed its aim, for after having escaped (how 

 miraculously ! Heaven alone knows) for twelve years, 

 every danger of the jungle, in one continued war 

 against the elephant tribe, he was, not long ago, struck 

 dead by lightning when engaged in his favourite 

 pursuit ! (A glorious day that, in the elephantine 

 calendar !) The fate of one whom the united brute 

 creation could not touch, the flash of the mountain- 

 storm, as if jealous of his supremacy, at last accom- 

 plished ! A small black spot on his foot, and the lost 

 lustre of that soft blue eye as he sank upon the 

 mountain, alone indicated the finale to the existence 

 of the most extraordinary elephant slayer that ever 

 lived on the earth ! 



The fate of the unfortunate brute that was shot 

 some years since at Exeter 'Change, when half an 

 army was drawn up to pepper away at its carcase for 

 hours, is certainly sufficient to make one sceptical on 

 the point that one little ounce ball, properly ad- 

 ministered, will as effectually demolish an elephant 

 as it will a bluebottle, but so it is ; the animal's skull 

 in some particular spots is not much thicker, if at all, 

 than that of a man, and the brain is quite as ac- 

 cessible, (much more so than some men's) and 

 should any of the tribe hereafter take it into their 

 heads to take leave of their senses, I hereby most 



