AN ELEPHANT HUNT. 
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majestic horns rising from its forehead like a glory, 
the round, bright, full eye glowing with noble fero- 
city, and seeming to beam with a glance of ardent 
indignation at being thus entrapped in a pit, and 
thereby rendered unable to show its desperate powers 
of retaliation, altogether impressed me with a feeling 
amounting to respect for the bovine species — of which 
this animal may certainly be considered the monarch 
— such as I had never before entertained. 
I forgot to mention, that the day before, about 
noon, a single elephant rushed into the enclosure. It 
was quite frantic, threatening to charge the fence, 
which there was reason to apprehend it would break 
down, as this happened to be weak in that spot 
before which the creature stood with a fearful aspect 
of mischief. We were all instantly upon the alert; 
and I, being the most active, was the first to get a 
shot at the enraged animal, and dropped it headlong 
into the ditch, quite dead, with a single ball. It was 
not above five yards from me when I fired, and being 
so large a mark I could not well miss taking a fatal 
aim ; there was, however, something awful in such a 
gigantic creature all rage and strength, in one instant 
converted from a stupendous exemplar of the living 
principle, into a mere huge mass of inanimate flesh, 
bones, and sinews. 
In the evening of the 10th the whole herd, with 
the exception of the large male already spoken of, and 
one or two others, crossed the vista, where their re- 
treat was immediately cut off by a line of fires. Thus 
hemmed in, they had no alternative but to try the pass, 
and about sunset the first elephant went through. A 
