OF THE OLD WOKLD, 247 



which, unconscious of our approach, were still in the 

 same position, and taking a moment to draw breath, 

 and wipe my eyes from the perspiration which 

 streamed down my forehead, I crept under the cover 

 of some low bush to a clump of bamboos, within 

 pistol shot of the tusker ; which I had hardly 

 reached when I saw that I was discovered, for one 

 of the females sprang up suddenly with a strange 

 wild cry, and rushed a few paces forward, tail on end. 

 The bull also made a simultaneous movement, 

 stretching out his trunk with a grunt to catch the 

 wind, and giving me a fair shot — not a second was 

 to be lost. I threw up my rifle, took a deliberate 

 and steady aim at the hollow above the trunk, 

 (which is about the size of a saucer,) in the centre of 

 his forehead, and pulled the trigger. A heavy fall 

 immediately followed, but before the smoke had 

 cleared away, and I could see the result of my shot, 

 the female rushed frantically forward, nearly cap- 

 sizing me in her course, and tore up a wild date 

 within three yards of the spot where I was standing. 



As she did not appear, however, to notice me, but 

 went off trumpeting in an opposite direction to that 

 taken by the rest of the herd, I did not molest her 

 at the time, for I felt too anxious to secure the 

 tusker, whom I found stone-dead, with his fore-legs 

 doubled under him, his hind ones stretched out, and 

 his tusks deeply embedded in the ground with the 

 fall. 



I had hardly made sure of his being dead when 



