I Thought It Was All Up With Me This Time; I Was Immovable In My Bed Of
Mud, And, Instead Of The Clean Brown Barrel That I Could Usually Trust
To In An Extremity, I Raised A Mass Of Mud To My Shoulder, Which Encased
My Rifle Like A Flannel Bag.
I fully expected it to miss fire; no sights
were visible, and I had to guess the aim with the advancing elephant
within five yards of me.
Hopelessly I pulled the slippery trigger. The
rifle did not even hang fire, and the rogue fell into the deep bed of
mud stone dead. If the rifle had missed fire I must have been killed, as
escape would have been impossible. It was with great difficulty that I
was extricated from my muddy position by the joint exertions of myself
and gun-bearers.
Elephants, buffaloes, and hogs are equally fond of wallowing in the mud.
A buffalo will gallop through a swamp, hock deep, in which a horse would
be utterly powerless, even without a rider. Elephants can also make
wonderful progress through deep mud, the formation of the hind legs with
knees instead of hocks giving them an increased facility for moving
through heavy ground.
The great risk in attacking rogue elephants consists in the
impracticability of quick movements upon such ground as they generally
frequent. The speed and activity of a man, although considerable upon a
smooth surface, is as nothing upon rough, stumpy grass wilds, where even
walking is laborious.
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