io8 
WILD BLASTS AND THEIR WA YS 
CHAP. 
which was then nearly ripe. The land was rich, 
and the dhurra grew lo or 12 feet high, with 
stems as thick as sugar-cane, while the large heads 
of corn contained several thousand grains the size 
of a split-pea. This was most tempting food for 
elephants, and they travelled nightly the distance 
named to graze upon the crops, and then retreated 
before sunrise to their distant jungles. 
I do not enjoy night shooting, but there was no 
other way of assisting the natives, therefore I found 
myself watching, in the silent hours of night, in the 
middle of a perfect sea of cultivation, unbroken for 
many miles. There is generally a calm during the 
night, and there was so perfect a stillness that it 
was almost painful, the chirp of an insect sounding 
as loud as though it were a bird. At length there 
was a distant sound like wind, or the rush of a 
stream over a rocky bed. This might have been a 
sudden gust, but the sharp crackling of brittle dhurra 
stems distinctly warned us that elephants had in¬ 
vaded the field, and that they were already at their 
work of destruction. 
As the dhurra is sown in parallel rows about 
3 feet apart, and the ground was perfectly flat, 
there was no difficulty in approaching the direction 
whence the cracking of the dhurra could be 
distinctly heard. The elephants appeared to be 
feeding towards us with considerable rapidity, and 
in a few minutes I heard the sound of crunching 
within 50 yards of me. I immediately ran along 
the clear passage between the tall stems, and 
