A MEMORABLE ELEPHANT HUNT. 201 



Ahead of us that ridge-side seemed to stretch out interminably, and 

 of the same desperate character all the way. Of course we could 

 not stir a step through such thick stuff without following in an ele- 

 phant trail, and in case of a charge we could not have run ten paces, 

 except forward or back. 



The dead bamboos lay in piles across our track, and, while the 

 elephants stepped over them with ease, we were obliged to climb 

 and scramble over as best we could. It really seemed that the trail 

 led uj) hill all the time, and that the jungle was all thorns and briers 

 to scratch and tear us. 



About noon we overtook the herd, but in such cover we dared not 

 think of attacking it. For three hours we followed along within 

 hearing of it, hoping it would enter a more open tract somewhere 

 in which Ave could dare to move about. Once we spent a laborious 

 }ialf-hour in trying to approach the herd fi'om the upper side, but 

 utterly failed. At last I began to feel quite exhausted, and my men 

 also complained of being very tired. Getting fairly desperate, I 

 determined to brmg matters to a crisis immediately, no matter 

 what the consequences might be, and then fortune favored us a 

 little. The herd dispersed and began feeding on the side of a 

 ridge which ran down the steep side of the mountain ; the cover 

 was more open, and the wind was in our favor. 



I soon found three large elephants feeding together on the hill- 

 side below me, and after watching them a few minutes I saw through 

 the leaves a gleam of white tusks. Bidding all the men stop at the 

 top of the hill, I went at the group alone, and five minutes later was 

 crouching behind a small bush, within twenty feet of the tusker's 

 head. He seemed to be a monster in size, and I thought his tusks 

 were very fine also. He was standing almost broadside to me, but 

 a thick green bough concealed nearly the whole of his head, and 

 prevented my firing. In anxious suspense I crouched behind my 

 little bush, with bated breath and finger on trigger, waiting for the 

 old fellow to move on a single step and pass that branch. But he 

 would not. I fretted and fumed inwardly, and was about to fire 

 through the leaves and risk it, when a young, half-groAvn elephant 

 pushed up alongside my tusker, reached out his trunk deliberately, 

 laid hold of that identical green bough and swept it down ! Thank 

 you, my young friend ! 



In an instant I saw I had neither the fail* temple nor forehead 

 shot, but just between the two. Aiming about six inches above the 

 eye, my old No. 8 woke the echoes the next moment, which was 



