138 1W0 YEARS IN THE JUNGLE. 



agus, twenty feet high. Slowly and deliberately he forces his way 

 right into the clump, and reaches inward and upward with his 

 trunk until he gets a turn of it around the coveted young shoot. 

 Now he quietly backs off a few steps, and the twenty-foot stem 

 totters, cracks, and comes down with a tearing crash. Quietly 

 placing his huge fore-feet upon the prostrate stem he crushes it 

 into fragments, winds a soft, juicy piece of it up to his mouth, and 

 begins a measured " champ ! champ ! champ ! " which tells us he is 

 wholly unsuspicious of our presence. 



At last the elephants began to move off, quietly browsing as they 

 went, and I saw that I must bring matters to a crisis at once. Four 

 of them started off down the hill, the old tusker in the rear, crossed 

 a nullah and entered a thick bamboo jungle on the other side. I 

 sneaked along behind my old tusker within twenty feet of his tail, 

 until at last the leading elephant turned off to the right, and I saw 

 that they were all going to pass quite close to an unusually large 

 clump of bamboos. I quickly made a detour to the right, almost 

 crawling upon hands and knees, and was soon crouching motionless 

 behind it. When the thu'd elephant had sauntered past me I 

 quietly took my position at the further side of the clump and waited 

 for my old tusker. Slowly he pushed past the thorny tangle and 

 came into view. I knelt there with the old smooth-bore at my 

 shoulder, in plain view of the old fellow and only fifteen feet away, 

 but I never moved a muscle and he did not twig me ! I never felt 

 more certain of killing a robin than I did of flooring him the next 

 moment. Taking a steady, careful aim at his ear-opening, I fired, 

 and sprang behind the bamboos to be out of his way when he feU. 

 Horrors ! Instead of coming down with a grand crash, as I ex- 

 pected, he threw his trunk aloft, gave a thiilling shriek and rushed 

 off through the forest, trumpeting as he went. My shot had been 

 a failure and a glorious chance was lost. But why ? Or how ? I 

 could not understand it, and could scarcely believe it was a fact. 



Of course my shot alarmed the entire herd and set the elephants 

 running in all directions at first, during which time I executed a 

 series of lively dodges to keep from being seen, and also to keep from 

 impeding the progi-ess of any elephant who might be running away. 

 A hunter who is quite surrounded by elephants, and alarms them 

 all by a shot, is often in great danger of being run over accidentally 

 when the herd makes its first startled rush. In a moment or two 

 the elephants all got together and started off, after which the forest 

 was still as death. We followed them until neai'ly night, without 



