THE TERRIBLE. 



latter may be dragged from his seat during the 

 flight, and thus be left helpless before the furious 

 beast, exposed to be impaled by the long tusks, or 

 crushed into a mummy by the enormous feet. 



An adventure of this sort with an elephant befel 

 one who has had more narrow escapes than any 

 man living, bat whose modesty has always pre- 

 vented him from publishing anything about him- 

 self. On the banks of the Zouga, in 1850, Mr. 

 Oswell pursued one of these animals into the 

 dense, thick, thorny bushes met with on the mar- 

 gin of that river, and to which the elephant 

 usually flees for safety. He followed through a 

 narrow pathway, by lifting up some of the 

 branches and forcing his way through the rest; 

 but when he had just got over this difficulty, he 

 saw the elephant, whose tail he had got glimpses 

 of before, now rushing towards him. There was 

 then no time to lift up branches, so he tried to 

 force the horse through them. He could not effect 

 a passage; and, as there was but an instant be- 

 tween the attempt and failure, the hunter tried 

 to dismount; but, in doing this, one foot was 

 caught by a branch, and the spur drawn along 

 the animals flank; this made him spring away 

 and throw the rider on the ground, with his face 

 to the elephant, which, being in full chase, still 

 went on. Mr. Oswell saw the huge fore-foot 

 about to descend on his legs, parted them, and 

 drew in his breath as if to resist the pressure of 

 the other foot, which he expected would next 

 descend on his body. He saw the whole length of 

 the under part of the enormous brute pass over 

 him ; the horse got away safely. Dr. Livingstone, 

 who records the anecdote, has heard but of one 

 other authentic instance in which an elephant 

 went over a man without injury ; and, for any one 

 285 



