Chap. IV.] 
THE ELEPHANT. 
151 
muscle quivering with excitement ; and his countenance 
lighting up with intense animation, leaping from rock to 
rock, as nimble as a deer, tracking the gigantic game like 
a blood-hound, falling behind as he comes up with it, 
and as the elephants, baffled and irritated, make the first 
stand, passing one rifle into your eager hand and holding 
the other ready whilst right and left each barrel performs 
its mission, and if fortune does not flag, and the second 
gun is as successful as the first, three or four huge 
carcases are piled one on another within a space equal 
to the area of a dining room." 1 
It is curious that in these encounters the herd never 
rush forward in a body, as buffaloes or bisons do, but 
only one elephant at a time moves in advance of the 
rest to confront, or, as it is called, to "charge," the 
assailants. I have heard of but one instance in which 
two so advanced as champions of their companions. 
Sometimes, indeed, the whole herd will follow a leader, 
and manoeuvre in his rear like a body of cavalry ; but 
so large a party are necessarily liable to panic ; and, one 
of them having turned in alarm, the entire body retreat 
with terrified precipitation. 
As regards boldness and courage, a strange variety 
of temperament is observable amongst elephants, but it 
may be affirmed that they are much more generally 
timid than courageous. One herd may be as difficult 
to approach as deer, gliding away through the jungle so 
gently and quickly that scarcely a trace marks their 
passage ; another, in apparent stupor, will huddle them- 
selves together like swine, and allow their assailant to 
come within a few yards before they break away in 
1 Private letter from Capt. Philip Payne GtAutwey. 
i- 4 
