282 The Hunting Grounds 



the mountains, came tumbling down its rocky bed in 

 a succession of foaming cataracts. 



To my surprise, I found from the spoor that the 

 herd had crossed, although by what means was not 

 evident either to myself or any of the gang, as the 

 stream was extremely rapid and appeared too deep 

 to be forded. Here and there, among the boiling 

 frothing eddies, broken rocks of greenish hue were 

 seen above the surface, but they were only the crests 

 of large boulders, and between them the stream ran 

 dark and rapidly. How the young elephants, of 

 which there were several in the herd, had managed 

 to get over I could not imagine, as no swimmer, 

 however strong, could have stemmed the torrent for 

 a moment; he must have been swept down and 

 dashed to pieces against the rocks. 



At last I bethought me that perhaps the " fresh" 

 had come down only lately, and that the herd had 

 crossed before he torrent became so swollen, and by 

 placing sticks by the edge of the stream I found my 

 opinion was correct, and that the volume of water was 

 still increasing. This was certainly not satisfactory, 

 to say the least of it, but " Never say die " was ever 

 my motto, and we knew the elephants were on the 

 other side, and that if we intended to be amongst 

 them, we must go too. How ? was the question* To 

 cross where we were was impossible, but after some 

 reconnoitring we found that below the falls the current 



