In one instant the jungle seemed alive; there were upwards of fifty
elephants in the herd. The trumpets rang through the forest, the young
trees and underwood crashed in all directions with an overpowering
noise, as this mighty herd, bearing everything before it, crashed in one
united troop through the jungle.
At the extreme end of the grassy hollow there was a snug corner formed
by an angle in the jungle. A glade of fine short turf stretched for a
small distance into the forest, and, as the herd seemed to be bearing
down in this direction, Wortley and I posted off as hard as we could go,
hoping to intercept them if they crossed the glade. We arrived there in
a few moments, and taking our position on this fine level sward, about
ten paces from the forest, we awaited the apparently irresistible storm
that was bursting exactly upon us.
No pen, nor tongue can describe the magnificence of the scene; the
tremendous roaring of the herd, mingled with the shrill screams of other
elephants; the bursting stems of the broken trees; the rushing sound of
the leafy branches as though a tempest were howling through them--all
this concentrating with great rapidity upon the very spot upon which we
were standing
This was an exciting moment, especially 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.
