llet will not penetrate the
tough thick skin of the great "pachyderm." Perhaps this had been the
cause of their failure on the preceding day. If so they had provided
against the recurrence of failure from such a cause. They had moulded a
new set of balls of harder material,--solder it should have been, but
they had none. They chanced, however, to be in possession of what served
the purpose equally well--the old "plate" that had often graced the
field-cornet's table in his better byegone days of the Graaf Reinet.
This consisted of candlesticks, and snuffer-trays, and dish-covers, and
cruet-stands, and a variety of articles of the real "Dutch metal."

Some of these were condemned to the alembic of the melting-pan; and,
mixed with the common lead, produced a set of balls hard enough for the
hide of the rhinoceros itself--so that this day the hunters had no fears
of failure upon the score of soft bullets.

They went in the same direction as upon the preceding day, towards the
forest or "bush," as they termed it.

They had not proceeded a mile when they came upon the spoor of elephants
nearly fresh. It passed through the very thickest of the thorny
jungle--where no creature but an elephant, a rhinoceros, or a man with
an axe, could have made way. A family must have passed, consisting of a
male, a female or two, and several young ones of different ages. They
had marched in single file, as elephants usually do; and had made a
regular lane several feet wide, which was quite clear of bushes, and
trampled by their immense footsteps. The old bull, Swartboy said, had
gone in advance, and had cleared the way of all obstructions, by means
of his trunk and tusks. This had evidently been the case, for the
hunters observed huge branches broken off, or still hanging and turned
to one side, out of the way--just as if the hand of man had done it.

Swartboy further affirmed, that such elephant-roads usually led to
water; and by the very easiest and shortest routes--as if they had been
planned and laid open by the skill of an engineer--showing the rare
instinct or sagacity of these animals.

The hunters, therefore, expected soon to arrive at some watering-place;
but it was equally probable the spoor might be leading them from the
water.

They had not followed it more than a quarter of a mile, when they came
upon another road of a similar kind, that crossed the one they were
spooring upon. This had also been made by a number of elephant