ELEPHAIS^T HUNTI^'^G. 141 



upon the herd. Just as I reached the middle of that small open 

 space, I heard a profound rustling among the thick branches that 

 screened the herd ; in another instant the branches parted suddenly, 

 and a huge old female came rushing down upon me. 



She had sufficient distance to get under full headway, and al- 

 though my breath stopped and my heart stood still with sheer 

 fright, I yet realized she was the grandest living object I ever saw — 

 and the most teiTible. Her head was held high and her trunk 

 curled up under her mouth to be uncoiled when within reach of 

 me, I suppose ; her ears seemed to stand straight out from her 

 head with the tips curled forwai-d, and the strides of her massive 

 legs were perfectly enormous. Luckily she came on in dead si- 

 lence, or I should have been frightened out of my wits. As it was, 

 I felt as if I was going to be i-un over by a locomotive. I knew it 

 was useless folly to run, for in a few strides she would have been 

 upon me. When I saw her coming I stood up quickly and faced 

 her, thi-ew my gun up to my shoulder and fired both barrels, at 

 the base of her coiled-ui^ trunk in the direction of the brain. 

 She was within fifteen paces of me when I fired, but the thunder- 

 ing report, the smoke, and two zinc balls crashing into her skull 

 close to her brain, stopped her charge, for she sheered off suddenly 

 and rushed into the forest, trumpeting shrilly once or twice. Di- 

 rectly there was a grand crash and a rush in the thicket as the 

 herd broke away and started off, and that was the last we saw or 

 cared to see of it. 



Then I had time to reflect upon what " it might have been " had 

 my caps failed to explode, or my powder been damp. Once when 

 walking on a railway track in a snow-storm, I was verj' nearly run 

 over by a locomotive coming down a grade in muflled silence, and 

 my sensations then were precisely the same as when that old female 

 elephant came charging down that grassy slope. The approach of 

 the powerful machine and the living monster seemed exactly alike. 



