82 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
Various beasts and birds of prey, — -jackals, adjutants 
vultures, kites, and reptiles of different kinds, were 
seen collecting from all quarters, waiting their turn 
to share in the casualty of a full banquet. 
During the time that the large alligator, 
“ At once the king and savage of the waste,” 
was busy at his work of hungry devastation on the colos- 
sal body of the elephant, a native attendant was de- 
sired to advance and fire, in order that we might see 
what would be the effect of the explosion among the 
ravenous visiters to this gloomy valley. This he 
immediately did. The ball glanced from the alliga- 
tor’s body as if it had been cased in adamant, 
when a scene of confusion ensued which defies de- 
scription. The whole valley seemed at once to start 
into life. The rush of the monster thus suddenly 
scared from its prey — the splashings of those which 
were floating on the surface of the lake in expec- 
tation of a speedy meal, as they plunged beneath its 
still waters — the yelling of the jackals, and the 
screaming of the vultures, made altogether such a 
din that we were glad to escape from the frightful 
uproar. We had the curiosity to revisit the spot 
after our day’s sport, on our return to our tents, 
when we found the large body of the elephant en- 
tirely consumed, with nothing but the skeleton re- 
maining. The bones were picked as clean as if they 
had been under the hands of a most skilful surgeon, 
and prepared by him for some national museum. This 
operation was completed by the black ants, which 
swarm upon a carcass after it has been relinquished 
