The saliva was still warm upon them,
and the dung of an elephant lay in the road in a state which proved his
close vicinity. There were no tracks, of course, as the path was nothing
but a line of piled rocks, from which the forest had been lately
cleared, and the elephants had just been disturbed by the clattering of
the horses' hoofs in ascending the rugged pass.
Banda had run on in front about fifty yards before us, but we had no
sooner arrived on the summit of the hill, than we saw him returning at a
flying pace towards us, with an elephant chasing him in full speed.
It was an exciting scene while it lasted: with the activity of a deer,
he sprang from rock to rock, while we of course ran to his assistance,
and arrived close to the elephant just as Banda had reached a high block
of stone, which furnished him an asylum. A shot from Palliser brought
the elephant upon his knees, but, immediately recovering himself, he ran
round a large rock. I ran round the other side, and killed him dead
within four paces.
Upon descending the opposite side of the pass, we arrived in flat
country, and on the left of the road we saw another elephant, a 'rogue',
in high lemon grass. We tried to get a shot at him, but it was of no
use; the grass was so high and thick, that after trying several
experiments, we declined following him in such ground. We arrived at
Nielgalla in the evening without farther sport: here we killed a few
couple of snipe in the paddy-fields, which added to our dinner.
Dec. 10.--Having beaten several miles of country without seeing any
signs of elephants, we came unexpectedly upon a herd of wild buffaloes;
they were standing in beautiful open ground, interspersed with trees,
about a hundred and ten paces from us. I gave Palliser my heavy rifle,
as he was very anxious to get a pair of good horns, and with the
pleasure of a spectator I watched the sport. He made a good shot with
the four-ounce, and dropped the foremost buffalo; the herd galloped off
but he broke the hind leg of another buffalo with one of the No. 10
rifles, and, after a chase of a couple of hundred yards, he came up with
the wounded beast, who could not extricate himself from a deep gully of
water, as he could not ascend the steep bank on three legs. A few more
shots settled him.
We gave up all ideas of elephants for this day after so much firing;
but, curious enough, just as we were mounting our horses, we heard the
roar of an elephant in a jungle on the hillside about half a mile
distant.
