ed following him in such ground. We arrived at
Nielgalla in the evening without farther sport: here we killed a few
couple of snipe in the paddy-fields, which added to our dinner.

Dec. 10.--Having beaten several miles of country without seeing any
signs of elephants, we came unexpectedly upon a herd of wild buffaloes;
they were standing in beautiful open ground, interspersed with trees,
about a hundred and ten paces from us. I gave Palliser my heavy rifle,
as he was very anxious to get a pair of good horns, and with the
pleasure of a spectator I watched the sport. He made a good shot with
the four-ounce, and dropped the foremost buffalo; the herd galloped
off but he broke the hind leg of another buffalo with one of the No. 10
rifles, and, after a chase of a couple of hundred yards, he came up with
the wounded beast, who could not extricate himself from a deep gully of
water, as he could not ascend the steep bank on three legs. A few more
shots settled him.

We gave up all ideas of elephants for this day after so much firing;
but, curious enough, just as we were mounting our horses, we heard
the roar of an elephant in a jungle on the hillside about half a mile
distant. There was no mistaking the sound, and we were soon at the spot.
This jungle was very extensive, and the rocky bed of a mountain-torrent
divided it into two portions; on the right hand was fine open forest,
and on the left thorny chenar. The elephants were in the open forest,
close to the edge of the torrent.

The herd winded us just as we were approaching up the steep ascent of
the rocky stream, and they made a rush across the bed of the torrent to
gain the thick jungle on the opposite bank. Banda immediately beckoned
to me to come into the jungle with the intention of meeting the
elephants as they entered, while Palliser was to command the narrow
passage, in which there was only space for one person to shoot, without
confusion.

In the mean time, Palliser knocked over three elephants as they crossed
the stream, while we, on reaching the thick jungle, found it so dense
that we could see nothing. Just as we were thinking of returning again
to the spot that we had left, we heard a tremendous rush in the bush,
coming straight towards us. In another instant I saw a mass of twisted
and matted thorns crashing in a heap upon me. I had barely time to jump
on one side, as the elephant nearly grazed me, and I fired both barrels
into the tangled mass that he bor