164 SHOOT THE INTRUDER. 



do but prepare for night-work, they should sleep while we were being 

 pulled out of bed by wild elephants. One rascal had the audacity to tell 

 me that he was watching most assiduously, but that " the elephant made 

 such a rapid advance from the jungle, with one trumpet and three strides, 

 that he had not even time to shout before the mischief was done ! " As 

 I turned in again and rolled myself in the blankets (the thermometer stood 

 at 42°), I felt a pleasing conviction that he and his brother rogues would 

 not, at any rate, lie on their backs again that night, should they relinquish 

 themselves any more to the seductions of repose. 



I hardly expected to see the elephant again ; but just as I was getting 

 up at daylight one of the men ran in to say the brute was making his way 

 towards us through the jungle close by. I ran out and could hear the 

 crackling of branches near the two elephants which were picketed on the 

 edge of the jungle, and in a few minutes the tusker stepped out near them, 

 and looked towards us. Now was there a hurrying to and fro in camp ,* 

 the cook forsook the coffee he was preparing for me, and the Bengalee 

 lascars their hookahs. The movement had a decided tendency towards 

 the other side of the small river between us and the main encampment, 

 and the native doctor's long and lank form was conspicuous in the van. 

 The tusker was a fine elephant, nearly nine feet high, but with poor tusks 

 for so tall an animal. He stood looking quietly towards us, and evinced 

 no intention of meddling with us again. He was a dangerous brute to 

 have about, however, so I walked towards him, rifle in hand. I expected 

 him to come on, when, if I failed to stop him (I was using my double 

 8 -bore rifle, with twelve drams of the new No. 8 pebble-powder in each 

 barrel), I had the river-bank on my right, to jump down which would have 

 placed me in safety. When I was within forty yards the elephant turned 

 suddenly to his right into the jungle. I had not time for a clear head-shot, 

 so I gave him one barrel behind the shoulder, whilst the left took him too 

 far back. The trackers followed him for about thirty miles, when they found 

 him dead on the bank of the Myanee, and extracted his tusks. They did 

 not return to camp for three days, owing to the difficulties of the country. 



On January 28th our provision-boats arrived from Eungamuttea, and 

 the men said a herd of elephants had crossed the river the night before 

 in view of the boats, and about fifteen miles below our camp. All hands 

 were quite rested now, and in an hour's time Gool Budden's party had 

 started, the men marching along the river -bank by the elephant -paths, 

 whilst their provisions and tools were floated down on bamboo rafts. I 

 followed next day, and the trackers having found the herd on a tributary 

 stream to the Myanee, the surround was commenced and completed without 



