82 SOLITUDE OF THE BtJSH. 



heavy piece of timber had been dragged along over it. 

 One or two places, which were destitute of grass and 

 rather clayey, retained large circular and oval-shaped 



impressions, which M explained to me as belonging, 



the circular to the bull, and the oval to the cow elephants ; 

 the height of the respective elephant being about six 

 times the diameter of these impressions. We measured 

 one foot-print, which gave us an answer of twelve feet, a 

 height quite sufficient to satisfy the fastidious in this sort 

 of sport. 



A strange mysterious feeling came over me in being 

 thus brought for the first time on the fresh traces of 

 evidently a numerous herd of these gigantic animals. I 

 began to ask if it were not great impertinence for two such 

 pigmies as we now seemed, to attempt an attack upon at 

 least forty of these giants, who, by a swing of their trunks, 

 or a stamp of their foot on us, could have terminated our 

 earthly career with as much ease as we could that of an 

 impertinent fly ? There is also an utter feeling of loneli- 

 ness, and self-dependence, in treading the mazes of these 

 vast forests. One mile of bush always appeared to remove 

 me farther from man and his haunts than twenty miles 

 of open country. One is inspired with a kind of awe by 

 the gloom and silence that pervade these regions, the 

 only sounds being the warning note of some hermit-bird, 

 or the crack of a distant branch. The limited view 

 around also tends to keep every other sense on the alert, 

 and the total absence of every sign of man, or man's 

 work, appears to draw one nearer to the spirit-world, and 

 to impress us with a greater sense of the Divine presence. 



