WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WA VS 
CHAP. 
of hundred yards, but it would not travel far at a 
greater pace than eight miles an hour, and it would 
reduce that pace to six after the first five miles. 
The proof of an elephant’s power of great speed for 
a short distance is seldom seen except in cases where 
the animal is infuriated, and gives chase to some 
unfortunate victim, who seldom escapes his fate by 
flight. For a short burst of fifty or one hundred 
yards an elephant might occasionally attain a pace 
exceeding fifteen miles an hour, as I have frequently, 
when among rough ground, experienced a difficulty 
in escaping when on horseback ; and in my young 
days, when a good runner, I have been almost 
caught when racing along a level plain as smooth as 
a lawn with a savage elephant in full pursuit. An 
active man upon good ground can run for a short 
distance at the rate of eighteen miles an hour; this 
should clear him from the attack of most elephants ; 
but unfortunately the good ground is scarce, and 
the elephant is generally discovered in a position 
peculiarly favourable to itself, where the roughness 
of the surface and the tangled herbage render it im¬ 
possible for a man to run at full speed without falling. 
We have recently seen a distressing example in 
the death of the lamented Mr. Ingram in Somali¬ 
land, who, although well mounted, was overtaken by 
an infuriated wild elephant and killed. This was a 
female, and it appears that Mr. Ingram, having 
followed her on horseback, had fired repeatedly with 
a rifle only *450. The animal charged, and owing to 
the impediments of the ground, which was covered 
