ix THE STRUGGLE OF THE TITANS 95 



due deference to the opinions of other writers, like 

 here to discountenance the notion that elephants 

 suffer from weak eyesight. All my experience has 

 taught me that, on a par with their hearing and 

 scent, their vision is extraordinarily keen, and I can 

 only suppose that the misapprehension has arisen 

 from the fact that, owing to the position of his eyes, 

 an elephant cannot see clearly straight in front of 

 him an entirely different matter. 



Now, towards the river, which was about a 

 hundred yards away, and directly before us, stretched 

 a fine open space, covered with trampled and broken 

 grass, and dotted here and there with a few small 

 trees, and as I patiently waited for the large bull to 

 turn, there was enacted in this natural amphitheatre 

 a scene, the like of which, in all my previous hunting 

 career, I had never had the good fortune to witness. 

 All at once, the small elephant, standing beside the 

 tuskless bull to the right of the main herd, beat the 

 ground a few times with his trunk, the action looking 

 as if it were something in the nature of a challenge, 

 and then, quickly crossing to where the large tusker 

 stood, deliberately gave him a blow on the hip with 

 his head and tusks. The assaulted animal, though 

 at first seemingly averse to a conflict, naturally 

 resented the treatment, and turning sharply, struck 

 his pugnacious companion full on the side of the 

 head. Both now began pushing one another with 



