Upon giving a shout, Palliser and Wortley returned to the spot. They now
explained the mystery. They were running on the fresh tracks in this
glade, no elephants being then in sight, when they suddenly heard a rush
in the jungle, and in another instant two elephants charged out upon
them. Wortley and Palliser both fired, but without effect--the
gun-bearers bolted,--an elephant knocked one man over, and tried to
butt him against the ground; but two more shots from both Palliser and
Wortley turned him; they were immediately obliged to run in their turn,
as the other elephant charged, and just grazed Palliser with his trunk
behind. Fortunately, they doubled short round, instead of continuing a
straight course, and the elephants turned into the jungle. They followed
them for some little distance, but the jungles were so bad that there
was no chance, and they had returned when I had shouted.
The man who was hurt was obliged to be supported home. Two of the guns
were lost, which the gun-bearers in their fright had thrown away. After
a long search we found them lying in the high bushes.
We now returned along the line of hunt to cut off the elephants' tails.
I had fired at six, all of which were bagged; these we accordingly found
in their various positions. One of them was a very large female, with
her udder full of milk. Being very thirsty, both Wortley and I took a
long pull at this, to the evident disgust of the natives. It was very
good, being exactly like cow's milk. This was the elephant that I had
killed doubly by the left-hand barrel exploding by accident, and the two
balls were only a few inches apart in the forehead.
There had been very bad luck with this herd; the only dead elephant, in
addition to these six, was that which Wortley and Palliser had both
fired at in the river, and another which Palliser had knocked down in
the high grass when we had just commenced the attack--at which time he
had separated from us to cut off the three elephants that we had just
seen among the rocks.
On arrival at the spot where the elephants had first burst from the
jungle, a heavy shower came down, and the locks of the guns were
immediately covered each with a large leaf, and then tied up securely
with a handkerchief. A large banian tree afforded us an imaginary
shelter, but we were drenched to the skin in a few seconds. In the
meantime, Palliser walked through the high lemon grass to look for his
dead elephant.
On arriving at the spot, instead of finding a dead elephant, he found
him standing up, and only just recovered from the stunning effect of his
wound.
The elephant charged him immediately; and Palliser, having the lock of
his gun tied up, was perfectly defenceless, and he was obliged to run as
hard as his long legs would carry him.
`Look out! look out! an elephant's coming! Look out!'
This we heard shouted as we were standing beneath the tree, and the next
moment we saw Palliser's tall form of six feet four come flying through
the high grass. Luckily the elephant lost him, and turned off in some
other direction. If he had continued the chase, he would have made a
fine diversion, as the locks were so tightly tied up that we could not
have got a gun ready for some time. In a few minutes the shower cleared
off, and on examining the place where the elephant had fallen, we found
a large pool of clotted blood
We now rode homeward, but we had not gone a quarter of a mile before we
heard an elephant roaring loudly in a jungle close to as. Thinking that
it was the wounded brute who had just hunted Palliser, we immediately
dismounted and approached the spot. The roaring continued until we were
close to it, and we then saw a young elephant standing in the bed of a
river, and he it was who was making all the noise, having been separated
from the herd in the late melee. Wortley shot him, this making eight
killed.
When within a mile of the tent, as we were riding along a path through a
thick thorny jungle, an immense rogue elephant stalked across our road.
I fired the four-ounce through his shoulder, to the great satisfaction
of Banda and the natives, although we never had a chance of proving what
the effect had been, as he was soon lost in the thick jungle. A short
time after this we reached the tent, having had the perfection of sport
in elephant-shooting, although luck had been against us in making a
large bag.
Dec. 2.--The scouts having been sent out at daybreak, returned early,
having found another herd of elephants. On our way to the spot, Palliser
fired at a rogue, but without effect.
On arrival at the jungle in which the elephants were reported to be, we
heard from the watchers that a rogue was located in the same jungle, in
attendance upon the herd. This was now a regular thing to expect, and
compelled us to be exceedingly cautious.
Just as we were stalking through the jungle on the track of the herd, we
came upon the rogue himself. Wortley fired at him, but without effect,
and unfortunately the shot frightened the herd, which was not a quarter
of a mile distant, and the elephants retreated to a large tract of thick
jungle country, where pursuit was impracticable. Our party was too large
for shooting 'rogues' with any degree of success.
