JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 77 



direction, also changed his course, and ran directly 

 into the brute's clutches ! 



Poor fellow ! he was dissected limb from limb, even 

 to the smallest joint in his fingers, but not a bone, I 

 believe, was broken. 



An intimate young friend of mine was slaughtered, 

 not many years ago, in consequence of his gun miss- 

 ing fire in the face of a magnificent tusk elephant. 

 He was only nineteen years of age, and having passed 

 a first- rate examination at Sandhurst, had come out 

 under promise of being speedily gazetted to a regi- 

 ment in the colony : he was first knelt on, and 

 then transfixed by the animal's tusks. 



Some others have likewise been killed by these 

 monsters ; many I know have been horribly wounded, 

 and experienced most fearful and providential 

 escapes. 



By the time that we have finished our second en- 

 counter, a feeling, if not of fatigue, at least of the ne- 

 cessity and agreeability of breakfast, forces itself most 

 obtrusively on our imagination ; and as we have wan- 

 dered some five miles away from the bungalow during 

 our excursion, and the sun is already high up over 

 the mountains, and beginning to bring our garments 

 into an unpleasant and dampish contiguity with our 

 skin, it is straightway put to the vote whether another 

 herd be attacked, or a retreat for that day be beaten 

 to our jungle home. 



Some fire -eating, never -satisfied youngster of the 

 party forms probably the inglorious " minority of one" 



