pecially to nerves unaccustomed to the
sport.

The whole edge of the forest was faced with a dense network of creepers;
from the highest tree-tops to the ground they formed a leafy screen like
a green curtain, which clothed the forest as ivy covers the walls of
a house. Behind this opaque mass the great actors in the scene were at
work, and the whole body would evidently in a few seconds burst through
this leafy veil and be right upon us.

On they came, the forest trembling with the onset. The leafy curtain
burst into tatters; the jungle ropes and snaky stems, tearing the
branches from the treetops, were in a few moments heaped in a tangled
and confused ruin. One dense mass of elephants' heads, in full career,
presented themselves through the shattered barrier of creepers.

Running towards them with a loud holloa, they were suddenly checked by
our unexpected apparition, but the confused mass of elephants made the
shooting very difficult. Two elephants rushed out to cross the little
nook within four yards of me, and I killed both by a right and left
shot. Wallace immediately pushed a spare rifle into my hand, just as a
large elephant, meaning mischief, came straight towards me, with ears
cocked, from the now staggered body of the herd. I killed her with the
front shot, both barrels having gone off at once, the heavy charge of
powder in the right-hand barrel having started the trigger of the left
barrel by the concussion. Round wheeled the herd, leaving their three
leaders dead; and now the race began.

It was a splendid forest, and the elephants rushed off at about ten
miles an hour, in such a compact troop that their sterns formed a living
barrier, and not a head could be seen. At length, after a burst of about
two hundred yards, the deep and dry bed of a torrent formed a trench
about ten feet in width.

Not hesitating at this obstacle, down went the herd without missing
a step; the banks crumbled and half-filled the trench as the
leaders scrambled across, and the main body rushed after them at an
extraordinary pace.

I killed a large elephant in the act of crossing; he rolled into the
trench, but struggling to rise, I gave him the other barrel in the nape
of the neck, which, breaking his spine, extinguished him. He made a
noble bridge, and, jumping upon his carcass, we cleared the ravine, and
again the chase continued, although the herd had now gained about thirty
paces.

Upon a fine meadow of grass, about fou