236 
SPORT AND WAR. 
CHAP. XXIII. 
vent their following us had been caught and tied up 
with thongs, and we had not got half-way to our posi¬ 
tion before the dogs had gnawed the thongs in two, and 
were following us down the forest, yelping and making 
a noise as dogs will do when following a trail. 
The effect of the dogs’ hark was most extraordinary. 
The elephants have a terrible dread of dogs; when, 
therefore, they heard the yelping the seventeen great 
monsters rushed together and formed a regular square, 
or rather circle, all their heads and tusks outwards, 
and so stood for some minutes in an attitude of 
defiance. It was the most striking thing imaginable— 
like infantry forming square to receive cavalry. Soon, 
however, the elephants, finding that nothing came to 
attack them, broke up and rushed direct for the forest 
where we were. Luckily we had got to very near the 
spot we intended, when the elephants came crashing into 
the forest not twenty yards from us, making large trees 
and underwood go down like straw before them. His 
Royal Highness, Currie, Rex, and myself had so far 
secured a good position that we were on high ground, 
with the dry bed of a stream or gull} immediately before 
us, and also the sloping trunk of a great tree which 
had fallen. We had not much time for thought before 
the elephants were upon us; but two of the hunters 
, and His Royal Highness were the only ones who got 
shots at the monsters. The Prince fired two shots at 
