156 CAPTURE OF A YOUNGSTER. 



tusker, charging right and left at everything that came in his 

 way, banging his head up against enormous forest trees, and 

 pushing with all his force against them, apparently under the 

 impression that they must fall beneath his enormous power. 

 On my trying to turn him he furiously charged me, turn- 

 ing as I turned, roaring at me with rage, and when I got 

 behind a tree he came full tilt up against it. At last we 

 boned him by the tail, and held on over a fallen tree like grim 

 death ; however, the strong little brute gradually worked his 

 tail through our hands and ran off again. We tore after him 

 and I caught him by his tail again, shouting out loudly for 

 assistance ; he dragged us to the edge of a rock and Michael 

 neatly pushed him over it, we holding by the tail so that he 

 could not use his hind legs ; after many hard struggles and 

 stretching his tail and trunk to the utmost we secured him, 

 but the poor little beast died the next day. 



On the 14th we were undecided where we should go, 

 when the question was settled by Atley reporting that a 

 tusker had been seen on the other side of the Annagundy 

 Pass, with fresh tracks of a herd. We started about nine 

 a.m., riding as far as the top of the Pass ; we had gone but a 

 very short distance down the other side when we struck on 

 the "spoor" of the herd ; some monkeys in the reeds close 

 by made a sound so exactly like elephants moving off that for 

 a time we thought that they had taken alarm, but it was not 

 so, for after a comparatively short track we came up with 

 them. We could only see a couple of females low down in a 

 nullah. I selected one showing the temple shot, though it 

 was the furthest off, as I funked the shot behind the ear which 

 the nearest gave. This deceived Michael, who thought I was 

 sure to take the nearest ; seeing me raise my rifle, he did the 



