6 FOX-HOUND, FOREST, AND PRAIRIE. 



the chance of getting a shot on Monday morning ; so, taking 

 with me one gunbearer and a guide, I set out to some trees we 

 had noticed as much used for rubbing posts by the " gajas " on 

 their way to feed. I was told it was " rather rot," and that I 

 should be eaten by mosquitoes ; but that if not dead by the 

 morning, I should be met by C. and Tuanko, who would bring 

 me some tea, &c. Just as I had arrived at the spot where I 

 had intended to make a night of it, I heard elephants roaring 

 some distance to the right, and as there was about an hour of 

 daylight left, I thought I might as well try for a shot. Going 

 about 300 yards through the forest we came upon an open 

 swampy plain, some 300 yards across, and one or two miles 

 long, with a few clumps of bushes here and there. We moved 

 in the direction of the roaring, skirting the edge of the forest 

 for about a mile. The sounds which had been kept up occasion- 

 ally now ceased altogether, and we could make nothing of the 

 whereabouts of the game, till, when we had gone nearly the 

 length of the plain, we suddenly came in sight of the herd of 

 from six to ten elephants, feeding quite in the open, and about 

 200 yards from us. There was not a single bush between me 

 and them, so it was impossible to stalk, and going up to them 

 in the open would have entailed an immediate stampede. It 

 was a splendid sight to see the huge brutes feeding, their great 

 forms moving about like perambulating houses, and the young 

 ones, of which there were two or three (one no larger than a 

 donkey) frisking round, hitting each other with their trunks, 

 and screaming in their play. I watched them for about a 

 quarter of an hour in hopes of some of them feeding towards 

 me ; but finding this fail, and the sun being nearly down, I 

 sent off the tracker to get round them, and, if possible, drive 

 them in my direction. However, just as he left me, they all 

 turned and moved into a kind of promontory running out of the 

 forest, consisting of high bushes, long grass, with a tree here 

 and there. The ground between them and us was quite open, 

 but as there was a single tree at the nearest edge of the covert, 

 I made for this, in hopes of getting across without being per- 



