76 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 



fore the enraptured audiences at Astley's " Cirque 

 Olympique." 



Sometimes, however, this operation is unhappily 

 reversed, and instead of the animal rolling over, as 

 in the present case, it falls to the lot of the aggressor, 

 not only to roll over, but to be afterwards knelt upon 

 (the favourite mode with the elephant decidedly a 

 "knee plus ultra" one of putting an extinguisher 

 on his foe), or torn limb from limb asunder. 



These accidents, fortunately, are not frequent ; 

 and the only wonder seems to be how they are 

 not so, when so many inexperienced youngsters ven- 

 ture out against wild elephants ; the animals are 

 extremely short-sighted, and when they charge down 

 on a person, after having once marked him out, I 

 believe they generally close their eyes, for it is very 

 easy to jump on one side, and as the tiger never 

 returns from his first spring, so do these animals 

 keep charging ahead until they are again lost in the 

 jungle. 



The fate of the unfortunate Major Haddock, of 

 the 97th Regiment, was a melancholy proof of the 

 power and revenge of an elephant. 



Having wounded one, and his barrels being all 

 exhausted, his best chance of escape from the animal, 

 which had now turned upon him, lay in dodging him 

 round a small patch of jungle. 



For half-an-hour this hide and seek game was kept 

 on, until the major, imagining the elephant had at- 

 tempted a ruse by doubling round in the opposite 



