268 WILD ANIMALS. 



The wonderful growtli and thickness of a tropical jungle can be 

 imagined from the fact that a herd of elephants can be completely 

 hidden in it, and wounded animals frequently baffle the hunter to 

 discover their whereabouts by keeping quiet in the dense grasses 

 although he may track them to a few yards of their hiding-place. 

 Colonel Kinlock writes : " The marvellous growth of the long grasses 

 and reeds, which spring up during the rainy season in the long 

 belt of country lying along the foot of the Eastern Himalayas, 

 and on the ' churs ' in the valley of the Brahmaputra and other 

 great rivers, has often been described, and the accounts received 

 with incredulity by those who have never seen how vegetation 

 thrives under the combined influences of a tropical sun and 

 abundance of rain. Let those doubt who may, however, the fact 

 remains that, year after year, in the short space of two or three 

 months, these giant grasses shoot up to a height of from twenty 

 to thirty feet, forming, with the wild Cardamum, various other 

 broad-leaved plants, and numerous creepers, a tangled cover 

 which shelters the elephant, the rhinoceros and the buffalo, as 

 effectually as a field of standing corn affords concealment to the 

 partridge or the quail, 



" I have seen a line of about fifteen elephants beating a strip of 

 reeds not more than two hundred yards in width, and I could 

 hardly see the grass shake. There was not as much commotion 

 or indication of what was going on, as would be caused by a pack 

 of beagles drawing a gorse covert," 



Mr. Andersson describes in his book, "The Okavango 

 River," a grand scene he witnessed on one occasion, for at 

 rather close quarters he watched over one hundred of these 

 huge beasts all drinking at a stream together. " I had 

 returned," he writes, " but a short time to my ambush, when 

 a large herd of female elephants with their calves came on, 

 perfectly heedless of the firing which had previously taken place. 

 With a rush they gained the water, exactly opposite to where I 

 was perched on my ant-hill. Soon afterwards they were joined by 

 several other troops pouring in fi:-om different directions, consisting 

 of cows and bulls intermixed. It was quite remarkable to observe 

 how they ranged themselves closely side by side, like a line of 



