He
whispered that he had found the elephant, who was standing on the
patina, a few yards beyond the jungle. We immediately advanced, and upon
emerging from the jungle we saw him within thirty paces on our right,
standing with his broadside exposed. Crack went the four-ounce through
his shoulder, and the three-ounce and No. 8, with a similar good
intention, into his head. Nevertheless he did not fall, but started off
at a great pace, though stumbling nearly on his knees, his head and tail
both hanging down, his trunk hanging listlessly upon the ground; and his
ears, instead of being cocked, were pressed tightly back against his
neck. He did not look much like a rogue at that moment, with upwards of
half a pound of lead in his carcass. Still we could not get another shot
at him before he reached a jungle about seventy paces distant; and here
we stopped to load before we followed him, thinking that he was in dense
chenar. This was a great mistake, for, on following him a minute later,
we found the jungle was perfectly open, being merely a fringe of forest
on the banks of a broad river; in crossing this we must have killed him
had we not stopped to load.
On the sandy bed of this river we found the fresh tracks of several
elephants, who had evidently, only just retreated, being disturbed by
the shots fired; these were a portion of the herd; and the old rogue
having got his quietus, we pushed on as fast as we could upon the tracks
through fine open forest.
For about an hour we pressed on through forests, plains, rivers, and
thick jungles alternately, till at length upon arriving on some rising
ground, we heard the trumpet of an elephant.
It was fine country, but overgrown with lemon grass ten feet high.
Clumps of trees were scattered here and there among numerous small
dells. Exactly opposite lay several large masses of rock, shaded by a
few trees, and on our left lay a small hollow of high lemon grass,
bordered by jungle.
In this hollow we counted seven elephants: their heads and backs were
just discernible above the grass, as we looked over them from some
rising ground at about seventy yards distance. Three more elephants were
among the rocks, browsing upon the long grass.
We now heard unmistakable sounds of a large number of elephants in the
jungle below us, from which the seven elephants in the hollow had only
just emerged, and we quietly waited for the appearance of the whole
herd, this being their usual feeding-time.
One by one they majestically stalked from the jungle.
