Here We Accordingly Bivouacked, The Cave
Being Sufficiently Large To Contain The Horses In Addition To Ourselves
And Servants.
After a delightfully cool night, free from mosquitoes, we
made a day of it, but we walked from sunrise till 5 P.M. without seeing
a sign of an elephant.
At length, from the top of a high hill on the
very confines of the Park country, we looked across a deep valley, and
with the assistance of the telescope we plainly distinguished a large
single elephant feeding on the grassy side of an opposite mountain. To
cross the deep valley that separated us, and to ascend the mountain,
would have taken several hours, and at this time of the day it was
impracticable; we were thus compelled to turn our backs upon the game,
and return towards our rocky home. Tired, more from our want of success
than from the day's work, we strolled leisurely along, and we were
talking of the best plan to be adopted for the next day's work, when I
suddenly observed a herd of eight elephants going up the side of a small
hill at their best pace within 200 yards of us. They had just quitted a
small jungle at the bottom of a ravine, and they had been alarmed by our
approach.
Off we started in pursuit, down the rugged side of the hill we were
descending, and up the opposite hill, upon the elephants' tracks, as
hard as we could run. Just as we reached the top of the hill, the
elephants were entering a small jungle on the other side.
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