THE INDIAN ELEPHANT 39 



or five hours, during which time he may lie 

 down. At 3 a.m. or so he again begins to feed, 

 moving slowly along, stopping for hours, maybe, 

 in some place where the bamboo fodder par- 

 ticularly tempts him. As soon as the sun gets 

 up he moves into thicker jungle, and from 

 about 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. stops feeding, and quietly 

 dozes the hours away. Let us suppose that one 

 strikes tracks at 6 a.m. which the animal has 

 made at 8 p.m. the previous night. The tracks 

 themselves show us how leisurely have been his 

 movements. They zigzag here and there as the 

 beast has turned aside to pull down a branch or 

 to rub himself against a tree. A little farther 

 on he has, perhaps, stopped for half an hour to 

 make a hearty meal. In the three hours during 

 which he has been walking and feeding he has, 

 perhaps, covered three miles. So that if you 

 have been moving at two miles an hour you will 

 arrive by 7.30 a.m. at the place where he has 

 stopped to rest for the night. He is now some 

 four hours ahead of you, but during those four 

 hours he has moved very leisurely, making long 

 halts here and there, perhaps covering another 

 four or five miles in all, so that, tracking slowly 

 but steadily, you come up with him at 9 a.m., 

 or thereabouts, to find him still feeding if you 

 are lucky. 



I can only call to mind two occasions on 

 which I have had a really long trudge after 



