3 i8 WILD SPORTS OF BURMA AND ASSAM 



the outskirts of the cove, have scented us by coming on our 

 trail, and are now coming straight in our direction." Seizing 

 my 8-bore, and handing my 12-bore to Moung Hpe, we took 

 up positions behind the thickest trees we could find ; these 

 were not, however, of a sufficient girth to be any protection. 

 My pony was unhitched from the tree to which it had been 

 tethered, bridled, and then made over to one of my followers, 

 who did not by any means feel comfortable at being held re- 

 sponsible for the pony's safety. The elephants, which were now 

 only about 1 50 yards off, changed their mad rush into another 

 direction, only, on meeting our trail in the new direction also, 

 to recoil and head back again in our direction. The noise of 

 the terrified charging elephants as they came nearer and 

 nearer, crushing and trampling down everything before them, 

 was simply indescribable. Telling my men to stand firm and 

 not to be alarmed, I took up my position alongside my pony, 

 which had by this time got quite accustomed to the noise. 

 Within about two minutes of the time the stampede occurred, 

 the leading elephant, a huge bony-looking female, came 

 bobbing along, followed in single file by a numerous progeny 

 of all sizes and sexes. It was a wonderful and unique sight, 

 and I had the full benefit of it as they filed noiselessly past 

 me, having moved up from my position to within fifteen 

 paces of their line of retreat, there being no undergrowth to 

 impede the view, and as they followed one another in single 

 file there was no danger of any of the animals coming in my 

 direction. What would I not have given for a camera ? The 

 various expressions in the eyes and faces of the different 

 animals, indicative of temper, were very noticeable. Some 

 with bland, good-natured, stolid, or stately faces, others with 

 a fierce or mischievous twinkle in their eyes. Nearly every one 

 of them, the small tuskers especially, turned their heads 

 slightly in my direction, a half-left turn of the head as they 

 passed, evidently scenting danger from that quarter. I 

 noticed that after leaving the dense cover and reaching the 

 open the animals seemed to have recovered somewhat from 

 the panic, as they all moved along in a more methodical 

 and mechanical manner one behind the other. Out of the 

 number that passed me, some thirty in all, there was not 



