HARDSHIPS OF ELEPHANT-HUNTING. 
337 
enabled to slay the animal with their slender spears, 
which, if properly directed, penetrate its bark-like 
hide with the same facility as a knife a Stilton cheese. 
As a number of men are usually engaged in 
these hunts, or massacres if you will, the appear¬ 
ance of the poor creature, prior to its sinking to 
the ground from loss of blood, is not very dissimilar 
to that of an angry porcupine. 
The elephant, it is to be remarked, has an un¬ 
accountable aversion to the canine race ; though, 
during the chase, he not unfrequently turns on a 
dog, he is said rarely to injure it with his trunk, 
which, were he so disposed, he might at times readily 
do; and that he detests swine is recorded by every 
naturalist, from Pliny to Buffon. It is even said 
that if a hare, or other small animal, crosses his 
path, he becomes immediately alarmed. 
The fatigues and hardships of elephant-hunting 
on foot, as shown in a former chapter, are exceed¬ 
ingly great, and it may be affirmed that they are 
no less even when‘one is mounted. Not so, pos¬ 
sibly, to the amateur sportsman, wffio, having every 
comfort, and needful appliances at hand, usually, 
I presume, takes the matter very easily; but cer¬ 
tainly to the man who makes the pursuit of the animal 
a sort of profession. I judge so, at least, from what 
my friend Frederick Green, who comes under the 
latter category, wrote me during one of his expe¬ 
ditions in the interior. 
£{ We worked hard to overtake the elephants, 
following on their trail from day-break to dark, 
until man and beast were utterly exhausted. 
z 
