556 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



him. We shot another bull elephant shortly after this ; he, 

 too, uttered a shrill cry, and went oflF holding the same course 

 the last one did ; that was, however, all that I ever saw of 

 him. 



Eight elephants killed and four '^bagged' were the ' trophies' 

 of this extraordinary night's sport, beside the 'bor^M' and 

 other 'small fry' — enough, surely, to have appeased the 

 appfitite for slaughter of the veritable Nimrod of old himself 

 — but there follows a variation upon this comparatively tame 

 sport. 



The next night I put in practice a novel experiment I had 

 long entertained — that of hunting elephants by moonlight 

 with dogs and horses, as in the day, being very much annoyed 

 at wounding and losing in the last week no less than ten first- 

 rate old bull elephants. I communicated my idea to ' Stick- 

 in-the-mud,' and we hastily proceeded to saddle my steed. I 

 led my dogs, eight in number, through the forest to leeward 

 of where a bull who had come to the fountain to drink had 

 gone in, and when I saw that they had got his wind I slipped 

 them. They dashed forward and next minute I followed the 

 baying of the dogs, and the crash and the trumpet of the 

 elephant. He rushed away at first without halting, and held 

 right for the mountains to the south-west. When, however, 

 he found that his speed did not avail, and that he could not 

 get away from his pursuers, he began to turn and dodge 

 about in the thickest of the cover, occasionally making 

 charges after the dogs. I followed on as best I could, 

 shouting with all my might to encourage my good hounds. 

 These, hearing their master's voice beside them, stuck well 

 by the elephant, and fought him better than in the day. I 

 gave him my first two shots from the saddle ; after which, I 

 rode close up to him, and, running in on foot, gave him some 

 deadly shots at distances of from fifteen to twenty yards. 



The elephant very soon evinced signs of distress, and 

 ceased to make away from us. Taking up positions in the 



