Ourselves in a chena jungle of two years' growth,
about five feet high, but so thick and thorny that it resembled one vast
blackthorn hedge, through which no man could move except in the track of
the retreating elephants.
To my delight, on entering this low jungle, I saw the female at about
forty yards' distance, making off at a great pace. I had a light
double-barrelled gun in my hand, and, in the hopes of checking her pace,
I fired a flying shot at her ear. She had been hunted so long that she
was well inclined to fight, and she immediately slackened her speed so
much that in a few instants I was at her tail, so close that I could
have slapped her. Still she ploughed her way through the thick thorns,
and not being able to pass her owing to the barrier of jungle, I could
only follow close at her heels and take my chance of a shot. At length,
losing all patience, I fired my remaining barrel under her tail, giving
it an upward direction in the hope of disabling her spine.
A cloud of smoke hung over me for a second, and, throwing my empty gun
on one side, I put my hand behind me for a spare rifle. I felt the
welcome barrel pushed into my hand at the same moment that I saw the
infuriated head of the elephant with ears cocked charging through the
smoke! It was the work of an instant. I had just time to cock the
two-ounce rifle and take a steady aim. The next moment we were in a
cloud of smoke, but as I fired, I felt certain of her. The smoke cleared
from the thick bushes, and she lay dead at SIX FEET from the spot where
I stood. The ball was in the centre of her forehead, and B., who had
fired over my shoulder so instantaneously with me that I was not aware
of it, had placed his ball within three inches of mine. Had she been
missed, I should have fired my last shot.
This had been a glorious hunt; many miles had been gone over, but by
great luck, when the wind dropped and the elephant altered her course,
she had been making a circuit for the very field of korrakan at which we
had first found her. We were thus not more than three miles from our
resting-place, and the trackers who know every inch of the country, soon
brought us to the main road.
The poonchy and the bull elephant, having both separated from the
female, escaped.
One great cause of danger in shooting in thick jungles is the obscurity
occasioned by the smoke of the first barrel; this cannot escape from the
surrounding bushes for some time, and effectually prevents a certain aim
with the remaining barrel.
