The Roaring
Continued At Intervals, Reverberating Among The Rocks Like Distant
Thunder, Till It At Length Died Away To Stillness.
We soon arrived in the vicinity of the sound, and shortly discovered
tracks upon a hard sandy soil, covered with rocks and overgrown with a
low, but tolerably open jungle at the base of the mountain.
Following
the tracks, we began to ascend steep flights of natural steps formed by
the successive layers of rock, which girded the foot of the mountain;
these were covered with jungle, interspersed with large detached masses
of granite, which in some places formed alleys through which the herd
had passed. The surface of the ground being nothing but hard rock,
tracking was very difficult, and it took me a considerable time to
follow them up by the pieces of twigs and crunched leaves, which the
elephants had dropped while feeding. I at length tracked them to a small
pool formed by the rain-water in the hollow of the rock; here they had
evidently been drinking only a few minutes previous, as the tracks of
their feet upon the margin of the pool were still wet. I now went on in
advance of the party with great caution, as I knew that we were not many
paces from the herd. Passing through several passages among the rocks, I
came suddenly upon a level plateau of ground covered with dense lemon
grass about twelve feet high, which was so thick and tangled, that a man
could with difficulty force his way through it.
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