COMMENCEMENT OF HOSTILITIES. 101

menced. I first gave him the benefit of my old well-tried double rifle, and discharged the right barrel as true as the branch he was holding to the centre of his forehead would allow me to direct it. The ball stung him sharply; he dropt the branch as if it had been a red hot poker; shook his enormous head, and roared violently. I now had a clear look at him; the hole made in his forehead by the ball annoyed him exceedingly; he turned up his trunk to examine the wound, sucked out the blood, and throwing it over his head and shoulders, appeared to experience considerable astonishment. I was not at all disposed to allow him. much time for reflection, for fear he might prove too troublesome, and as he was standing still, I favoured him with the left barrel, this time well planted just into the bump of his trunk, where it rises out of the head. As there was nothing to intercept my sight, this shot brought him upon his knees, in which position he remained just long enough to enable me to reload. On getting up he turned wildly about,

looking for me, and upon discovering my position, came down towards me at an awful pace. Anticipating this movement, I had my three ounce rifle prepared for his reception, and allowed him to come within twenty yards, when I sent the ball again into his forehead, which stopped him short; he began to stagger and roll about as if drunk, turned round three or four times, again felt over his bleeding forehead, sucking out pints of blood with his trunk, and showering it over his head and body which, originally black, had now been changed to a deep scarlet.

The fight up to this time had been carried on in the dry bed of the Raptee river, without a bush between us, but with a dense jungle on either side, so finding him a much thickerheaded and more disagreeable antagonist than I had inwardly bargained for, I considered it prudent to retreat into the jungle on my right, taking up my position behind a large tree. Not many minutes had elapsed ere he missed me, and rushing down to the spot where he had

last seen me, he began to hunt me out. Elephants possess a very keen sense of smell through the proboscis, but the blood was now streaming through the interior of that organ, which sadly perplexed his ́endeavours to sniff me out. By hard blowing he partially cleared the trunk, and discovering a clue to his opponent, came straight to the tree behind which I was concealed. I had no time to lose, I therefore treated him to a salute from the right and left barrels in rapid succession; the last shot, from his shaking his head at the first, glanced off the bone and scooped out his right eye, the pain of which drove him nearly mad. He spun himself round in intense agony; his roars were appalling, and he ploughed up the ground with his feet to an extent that, if described, would appear an exaggeration to those who have not seen an elephant, particularly an enraged one, in the act of performing that operation. His small eye hung from the socket, I therefore determined to manœuvre on his blind side, and ply him well with lead.

I had fought him for an hour and a half. Now, a scorching sun and a fast, under such circumstances, are rather trying; indeed, I had almost had enough of it, and began devoutly to wish that the beast would either take to his heels, or allow me to take to mine. The brute, unfortunately was in no such humour. It is a notorious fact, that when two wild elephants meet in a musth state, they never separate till one of them is destroyed. Their fight sometimes lasts a week, when the one which physically possesses the greatest capacity for fasting will destroy the other. Large male carcasses are thus frequently discovered by the elephant catchers, and their tusks are turned to a profitable account.

I was now greatly exhausted and blown, retreating after every shot to a fresh tree, the elephant invariably following me up. In a hurry I took up a position behind a tree which I should not have selected had I not been so fatigued. My opponent being from his wounds slow in pursuit enabled me to recover my wind,

THE CONTEST CONTINUED.

105

and while doing so it struck me I had occupied a bad position, the tree not being much thicker than my body. I immediately retreated to another tree a few yards off, affording much better cover, and fortunate it was I did so, for I had barely taken up my new ground when the elephant again commenced hunting me up, and when within four yards of the tree I had just quitted, he stopped, and putting his trunk out, after clearing it and scenting for some minutes made a terrific rush. But this was fortunately nearly his last. On coming up to the tree he made sure I was behind it, and encircling it with his trunk he endeavoured to break it down. Failing in this, he half leaned, but in a very exhausted state, against the tree, and after two more efforts tore it up by the roots and cast it down. Evidently making sure that I was under it, he now knelt down and commenced driving his tusks into both sides of the tree, flattering himself that he was probing my carcass. I was only a few yards from him during this operation. Having considerably