96 THE OUT- STATION; OR, 



soon had him in his proboscis. He then carried him 

 off to some little distance, and, pinning him to the 

 ground, attempted to crush him by kneeling on him. 

 This his tusks (being very long) prevented him from 

 doing, neither could he manage to transfix him with 

 his tusks. It was almost an impossibility to get a 

 shot at his head, being so close to M , there- 

 fore, several of the party, in hopes of getting the 

 animal to turn round, fired at its body. 



This but enraged it the more ; arid after nearly 

 five minutes had elapsed, when nothing could save 

 the almost lifeless captain but a coup-de-main, 

 Rogers walked up to within two yards of the ele- 

 phant, and lying down by the side of M , placed 



the muzzle of his gun within an inch of the animal's 

 forehead, and brought him down dead, almost on the 

 top of its exhausted victim, who never recovered the 

 shock, for he died very shortly after of a fever brought 

 on in consequence. 



On one occasion our hero had enjoyed some 

 splendid sport with a herd of these animals ; his 

 four guns had all been discharged when an unseen 

 elephant made a charge at him from the skirts of 

 the jungle. There was no help for it, except to run, 

 and for one hundred yards and upwards Major 

 Rogers kept just a-head, feeling at every step the 

 animal's trunk trying to insinuate itself round his 

 loins. 



A turn round a tree gave him a momentary 

 advantage, which he made the most of by springing 



