A MEMORABLE ELEPHANT HUNT. 199 



below our position, and finally they passed along the bottom of the 

 nuUah almost at our feet, within ten yards of us. But we had seen 

 the marks of tusks on several trees as we came along, and we knew 

 there were tuskers in the herd somewhere. 



Feeling sure these females would join the rest of the herd, we 

 followed them, and about two miles farther on came upon the en- 

 tire herd feeding in a dense patch of dead and fallen bamboos, rank 

 weeds, grass, and young bamboo shoots. Curran Shola is full of 

 just such patches, where the fallen bamboos have destroyed the 

 shade and the moisture, and caused the place to grow up with rank 

 grass, thick thorn bushes and trailing vines, the very worst place 

 in the world in which to attack elephants. 



We manoeuvred around the herd until the elephants began to 

 work out of that wretched brush patch into the open jungle which 

 suiTOunded it, and then by making a very risky stalk I got close 

 up to a splendid old tusker and fired at his temple. A total fail- 

 ure. Fool that I was, I imdershot the brain because the elephant 

 was below me. The tusker rushed into the thick patch, several 

 other elephants rushed out of it toward me, then stopped and 

 stood motionless for some seconds. Presently they tvuned about, 

 went back into the thicket, and began feeding again. 



We undertook to follow up the tusker, but it was very nervous 

 work. We could not get along at all save by following the elephant 

 paths, and a charge under such circumstances might easily have 

 been fatal to some of us. 



I posted Nangeu up in a small tree, whence he could see all over 

 the thicket, and with Vera leading the way and Channa at my heels 

 with a spare gun, we went in. The bushes, grass, and weeds were, 

 in places, nearly twice as high as our heads, and except for the ele- 

 phant paths we could not see five yards in any direction. We kept 

 a careful eye upon Nangen all the time, and it was well for us that 

 we did so. All at once his arms began to fly about like the sails of 

 a wind-mill, as he violently gesticulated at us and looked unutter- 

 able things. Directly we darted back to a place of safety, and the 

 next moment two large elephants walked rapidly across the very 

 spot from whence we first saw Nangen's warning pantomime. Then 

 we concluded not to risk getting amongst twenty-five or thiiiy ele- 

 phants in such a place as that was. 



After a time the herd quitted that thicket, walked rapidly 

 through the open jungle for a mile, and entered another of the 

 same nature, only much worse. For an hour the elephants went 



