rers each, who were to
carry my four double No 10's, while we each carried a single barrel for
deer.

The earliest gray tint of morning saw us dressed and ready, the rifles
loaded, a preliminary cup of hot chocolate swallowed, and we were off
while the forest was still gloomy; the night seemed to hang about it,
although the sky was rapidly clearing above.

A noble piece of Nature's handiwork is that same Yalle forest. The
river flows sluggishly through its centre in a breadth of perhaps
ninety yards, and the immense forest trees extend their giant arms from
the high banks above the stream, throwing dark shadows upon its
surface, enlivened by the silvery glitter of the fish as they dart
against the current. Little glades of rank grass occasionally break
the monotony of the dark forest; sandy gullies in deep beds formed by
the torrents of the rainy season cut through the crumbling soil and
drain toward the river. Thick brushwood now and then forms an opposing
barrier, but generally the forest is beautifully open, consisting of
towering trees, the leviathans of their race, sheltering the scanty
saplings which have spring from their fallen seeds. For a few hundred
yards on either side of the river the forest extends in a ribbon-like
strip of lofty vegetation in the surrounding sea of low scrubby jungle.
The animals leave the low jungle at night, passing through the forest
on their way to the river to bathe and drink; they return to the low
and thick jungle at break of day and we hoped to meet some of the
satiated elephants on their way to their dense habitations.

We almost made sure of finding our friend of yesterday's trek, and we
accordingly kept close to the edge of the river, keeping a sharp eye
for tracks upon the sandy bed below.

We had strolled for about a mile along the high bank of the river
without seeing a sign of an elephant, when I presently heard a rustle
in the branches before me, and upon looking up I saw a lot of monkeys
gamboling in the trees. I was carrying my long two-ounce rifle, and I
was passing beneath the monkey-covered boughs, when I suddenly observed
a young tree of the thickness of a man's thigh shaking violently just
before me.

It happened that the jungle was a little thicker in his spot, and at
the same moment that I observed the tree shaking almost over me, I
passed the immense stem of one of those smooth-barked trees which grow
to such an enormous size on the banks of rivers. At