JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 75 



on the previous one, for having "tasted blood" in 

 more than a figurative sense, I was determined to be 

 revenged, and found that now the first excitement 

 was over, and I better understood how to set about 

 the business, it was quite as easy to take the matter 

 coolly as not, and one obliging animal guessing my 

 wishes at the moment, and anxious to put my abilities 

 to the test, singled me out for a victim. 



Curling his proboscis up under his head (not flour- 

 ishing it in the air as all illustrations represent an 

 elephant when rushing at an object) and bending its 

 head half way down to the ground a world of mis- 

 chief peering out of that wicked little swinish eye 

 on he came at a quick trot at me. 



He was soon within eight or ten paces my gun 

 had been at my shoulder covering the fatal spot from 

 the moment he commenced the charge, and when 

 another second would have brought him bodily on the 

 top of me, one touch of the forefinger sent an ounce- 

 ball crashing through his skull, and down he sunk 

 without a struggle or a groan, his trunk nearly touch- 

 ing my feet. 



The fall of the elephant is almost noiseless; instead 

 of coming down like a house, plump on its side at 

 once, with a concussion that one would suppose 

 enough to cause a diminutive earthquake, it sinks 

 gradually down, first on its knees, then on its belly, 

 and, finally, rolls over as unconcernedly and gracefully 

 as if it were going through some civilised evolu- 

 tions under the managership of Mr. Hughes, or be- 



