168 WILD LIFE IN NORTH CANARA. 



the brute was so mucli interested in the 

 palanquins that he did not concern 

 himself about the fugitives ; his anger 

 appeared to concentrate itself on Mr. 



M 's palanquin. He overthrew it, 



crushed it, tore it open, and finally 

 stamped upon it so perseveringly that 

 scarcely a bit of it over the size of a 

 plate was left unbroken. Having thus 

 vindicated his seignorial rights, the 

 elephant departed as he had come. 



Next day a party of shikaries started 

 to exterminate this elephant, and bands 

 of woodcutters cleared away the under- 

 wood for ten or twenty paces on the 

 margin of the track, so that when, a 

 fortnight later, my wife and I traversed 

 the same forest, we were assured the 

 road was safe. Nevertheless, on the 



