002 TWO TEARS ITf THE JUNGLE. 



followed by a grand rush on three sides of me. I wheeled around, 

 ran up the hill a few paces to a small tree, and reloaded with aU 

 haste. I listened to hear a fall, but if there had been one the 

 noise made by the fleeing herd would have drowned it. Fearing 

 my shot had been a failure, and another laborious trial lay before 

 us, I hurried down the hill again. 



Victory ! There lay my noble old tusker, stone dead ! He had 

 sunk down in his tracks and died without a struggle or a soimd. 

 My zinc bullet had passed entirely through skull and brain, and 

 buried itself ten inches deep in the flesh of the neck. Our dan- 

 gerous and tiresome chase was ended at last, successfully, and we 

 all rejoiced. 



After the manner of griffins generally, I scrambled upon the 

 top of the huge carcass, and opened a bottle of Bass' best in honor 

 of the occasion. Then I called for a certain black bottle in one of 

 the Mulcers' bundles which, as they well knew, had been carried 

 for their especial benefit. There was a general smacking of lips as 

 I produced a cup, drew the cork, and poured out — cocoanut oil ! 

 There was a stare of blank astonishment, a general murmur of 

 disappointment and wrath at Doraysawmy, and the next moment, 

 despite our chagrin, we aU burst out laughing at the absurdity of 

 the occurrence. My boy had simply given us a bottle of cocoanut 

 oU instead of the arrack the souls of the Mulcers yearned for. 



Our first care was to measure our prize, which we managed to 

 accompHsh with fair exactness. His dimensions were as follows : 



Vertical height at shoulders 9 feet. 



Height at middle of back 9 " 6 inches. 



Length, tip of trunk to tip of tail 23 " 10 



Length of tusks 3 " 6 





Although oiir elephant was a large one, his tusks were in reality 

 rather short, but thick in proportion to their length. 



It is no light task for six men to skin an elephant weighing four 

 tons or more, in thick jungle, miles from any road, and preserve it, 

 in spite of rain and sun, in a fit state to be transported and success- 

 fully mounted afterward. Many of my friends in India, and at 

 home in the Establishment, had expressed the opinion that such a 

 task could not be successfully accomphshed under such circum- 

 stances Mr. Theobald was not only doubtful but quite certain that 

 it could not be done. It is a very difficult matter to remove and 

 preserve the skin of a large elephant, even in a menagerie, with all 



