Palliser
Fired An Ineffectual Shot At Him At A Long Range, And The Day Closed.
It
was moonlight when we reached the 'amblam':
The bag for that day being
five elephants, and two bucks.
Dec. 9.--We had alarmed this part of the country; and after spending a
whole morning in wandering over a large extent of ground without seeing
a fresh track of an elephant, we determined to move on to Nielgalla,
eight miles from the 'amblam.' We accordingly packed up, and started off
our coolies by the direct path, while we made a long circuit by another
route, in the hope of meeting with heavy game.
After riding about four miles, our path lay through a dense forest up
the steep side of a hill. Over this was a narrow road, most difficult
for a horse to ascend, on account of the large masses of rocks, which
choked the path from the base to the summit. Leaving the horse-keepers
with the horses to scramble up as they best could, we took our guns and
went on in advance. We had nearly reached the summit of this pass, when
we came suddenly upon some fragments of chewed leaves and branches,
lying in the middle of the path. 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.
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