OF THE OLD WOELD. 245 



Here it was I made sure that there was a bull in 

 the herd with large ivories ; for I perceived marks 

 in the bank where he had thrust his tusks under the 

 root of a large jungle-tree, covered with creeping 

 oleaster, full of rich bunches of sour scarlet plums, 

 which had resisted all his efforts to tear up. 



I saw, from the freshness of the spoor and other 

 traces which remained, that we had gained very con- 

 siderably upon the herd, and as we all felt rather 

 fatigued, we lay down to repose for a couple of 

 hours, continuing our course when the day broke. 



Towards noon, after crossing several densely- 

 wooded ravines and rocky hills, where the elephant, 

 in spite of his great weight, scarcely leaves any trace, 

 the spoor being only indicated by a broken leaf, 

 bruised twig, or a lately-upturned stone, we entered 

 some thick bamboo jungle, and here we found a 

 " jheel," or swamp, where they had remained during 

 the night, and which bore traces of having been very 

 recently occupietl The trail was warm. 



Being inspired with fresh vigour, fatigue was for- 

 gotten, and after having made our way through a 

 wide ravine, and crossed a stony watercourse, where 

 the spoor was certainly not an hour old, at about 

 three o'clock in the afternoon, we began to ascend a 

 long ridge of low rocky hills — a difficult route, one 

 would think, for such unwieldy-looking animals, but 

 the spoor was plain, so on we went ; and after an 

 hour's clambering up a steep and rather difficult 

 ledge of rocks, we arrived at the summit, where I had 



