LABORIOUS WORK. 
321 
notwithstanding'the serious wound the animal had 
received, he cost us many hours hard walking and 
running, much dodging, great suffering from thirst, 
and exposure to many perils, before we finally suc¬ 
ceeded in bringing him down. 
At length, therefore, my presentiment was ful¬ 
filled to the letter; but the excitement and exertion 
of the hunt had been too much for me. The very 
next morning, indeed, I was delirious, and months 
elapsed before I could again shoulder my rifle. 
As will be seen from the above, elephant-hunting 
on foot, and in the hot season, is most laborious 
and harassing work. Indeed, a long experience of 
this pursuit has brought me to the conviction that, 
under such circumstances, it is far more trying and 
distressing to the constitution than the most severe 
manual labour. It wras rarely, or never, that I , 
could track, stalk, and kill my elephant, and return 
to camp, in less than ten hours; more frequently 
I was absent from it for fourteen, or sixteen, 
hours. Nay, I have been as much as two days and 
a night engaged in a single hunt. My attendants 
(natives) were, at times, so completely done up, 
I myself being in general nearly as much so, that, 
on their return to the bivouac, they would fall 
asleep where they stood, alike indifferent to hunger, 
to the chilling night-air, or to the scorching rays of 
the sun, as the case might be. For my own part, 
when fairly beaten, nothing could restore me to 
myself but quiet, a plentiful supply of cool water, 
and, above all, a good wash. 
It was not, however, hunger or fatigue that was 
Y 
