THE ELEPHANT. 183 



XI. 



HUNTING with the gun, notwithstanding the supe- 

 riority of the weapon, is full of peril. This may be 

 judged of by the situation in which Le Vaillant found 

 himself on the occasion of his first elephant hunt. 



The animal had received fifteen shots, and he was 

 thoroughly enraged; he had led the hunters into 

 brushwood, interspersed with the dead trunks of fallen 

 trees. The elephant, at twenty-five yards from our 

 traveller, charged him. He ran away, the beast at 

 every instant gaining on the man. 



"More dead than alive, it only remained for me to 

 lie down flat behind the trunk of a fallen tree. I had 

 scarcely got there when the animal arrived, leaned 

 over the obstacle, and, himself frightened by the noise 

 of my people which he heard before him, stood to 

 listen. 



"From the place where I was hidden I might have 

 shot him. Fortunately my gun was loaded, but the 

 beast had already received uselessly so many shot?, 

 and presenting himself to me in such an unfavour- 

 able position, that, despairing of bringing him down 

 at one shot, I remained motionless waiting my fate. 

 I watched him, nevertheless, resolved to sell my life 

 dearly if I saw him come back to me. My people, 

 uneasy for their master, shouted for me on all sides. I 



