IX 
THE STRUGGLE OF THE TITANS 
95 
due deference to the opinions of other writers, like 
here to discountenance the notion that elephants 
suffer from weak eyesight. All my experience has 
taught me that, on a par with their hearing and 
scent, their vision is extraordinarily keen, and I can 
only suppose that the misapprehension has arisen 
from the fact that, owing to the position of his eyes, 
an elephant cannot see clearly straight in front of 
him—an entirely different matter. 
Now, towards the river, which was about a 
hundred yards away, and directly before us, stretched 
a fine open space, covered with trampled and broken 
grass, and dotted here and there with a few small 
trees, and as I patiently waited for the large bull to 
turn, there was enacted in this natural amphitheatre 
a scene, the like of which, in all my previous hunting 
career, I had never had the good fortune to witness. 
All at once, the small elephant, standing beside the 
tuskless bull to the right of the main herd, beat the 
ground a few times with his trunk, the action looking 
as if it were something in the nature of a challenge, 
and then, quickly crossing to where the large tusker 
stood, deliberately gave him a blow on the hip with 
his head and tusks. The assaulted animal, though 
at first seemingly averse to a conflict, naturally 
resented the treatment, and turning sharply, struck 
his pugnacious companion full on the side of the 
head. Both now began pushing one another with 
