136 TWO YEARS IN THE JUNGLE. 



speed of the wind before I could even raise my rifle, but the doe 

 stopped short forty yards away, and for a full minute stood stock- 

 still, staring at me in dull surprise and cm*iosity. I could easily 

 have brought her down, but she would have been woi-thless as a 

 specimen, and so we all stood there quietly and had a staring match 

 with the doe, until she turned around and ti'otted off. The stag 

 carried a fine pair of antlers, and we set upon his trail at once, 

 hoping to come up with him in half an hour, at most. As we were 

 hurrying along, we came to where that trail led across another of 

 a very different description, and the trackers stopped short, pointed 

 to it with broad smiles, and in low tones exclaimed, " Ani, sahib ! 

 ani ! " or in other words, " Elephants, sir ! elephants ! " After ex- 

 amining the trail very carefully they declared that it was only four 

 hours' old, and had been made by a herd of at least ten elephants. 

 Without another word we turned off upon the elephant trail and 

 followed it as fast as we could walk. 



When travelling through the forest, going from one good feed- 

 ing ground to anothei*, elephants usually follow one another in 

 Indian file, so that a whole herd leaves only a single trail ; but that 

 is a broad, weU-tramped path, as plain and weU-beaten as if a regi- 

 ment of men had marched along in the same order. When it leads 

 through tall grass there is a clear lane a foot and a half wide. 



The trail soon led us into a marsh of mud, water, and tail, rank 

 grass as high as our heads, and there the herd had scattered some- 

 what. The soft mud was tramped full of gi'eat, deep holes where 

 their huge feet had sunk down, and they had fairly mown down 

 the high gi'ass, as they went along, leaving the marsh cut up into a 

 labyrinth of lanes. A green hunter acquires a veiy wholesome re- 

 spect for an animal which leaves a track sixteen inches in diameter 

 and eighteen inches deep ! But we crossed the marsh and entered 

 the forest again. 



The trail freshened rapidly from the first, and we had followed 

 it for about an hour at a good pace, when suddenly we heard a 

 clear, resonant trumpet note, coming from the forest on our right. 



^^ 



Tal-loo-ee ! 



It created a profound sensation, and instantly we turned off the 

 trail and started in a bee-Hne for the old fellow who was doing the 



