THE KOMANCE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



who knows the nature of the bush in which this 

 occurred, the very thought of an encounter in it 

 with such a foe is appalling. As the thorns are 

 placed in pairs on opposite sides of the branches, 

 and these turn round on being pressed against, 

 one pair brings the other exactly into the position 

 in which it must pierce the intruder. They cut 

 like knives. Horses dread this bush extremely; 

 indeed, most of them refuse to face its thorns.* 



Occasionally, however, the elephant-hunter falls 

 a victim to his daring. A young and successful 

 ivory-hunter, named Thackwray, after numberless 

 hair-breadth escapes, at length lost his life in the 

 pursuit. On one occasion, a herd pursued him to 

 the edge of a frightful precipice, where his only 

 chance of safety consisted in dropping down to a 

 ledge of rock at some distance below. Scarcely 

 was he down before one of the elephants was seen 

 above, endeavouring to reach him with its trunk. 

 The hunter could easily have shot the brute while 

 thus engaged, but was deterred by the fear of the 

 huge carcase falling down on him, which would 

 have been certain destruction. He escaped this 

 danger, but soon afterwards, almost at the very 

 same spot, he met the fatal rencontre. With one 

 attendant Hottentot, Thackwray had engaged a 

 herd of elephants, one of which he had wounded. 

 The Hottentot, seeing it fall, supposed that it was 

 dead, and approached it, when the animal rose 

 and charged furiously. The lad threw himself 

 upon the ground, and the infuriated beast passed 

 without noticing him, tearing up the trees and 

 scattering them in its blind rage; but, rushing 

 into a thicket where Thackwray was reloading 

 his rifle, it caught sight of him, and in an instant 

 hurled him to the earth, thrusting one of its tusks 

 * Livingstone's "South Africa," p. 580. 

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