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renter of the jungle? I measured one of his footprints, roughly, with my hand-eight spans round-which, by the wellknown rule, would make his height nearly ten feet. A noble elephant ! We followed on the track for some time, but to no purpose in the jungle, where the elephant could go three feet to our one, and, it growing dark, we gave up the pursuit; and, though we explored after him the next day, we could never gain any news of him again. His footsteps were lost among those of a herd; the bleeding of his wound had stopped, and he, being, I doubt not, hit too high up, was lost to me and my heirs for ever!

December 19th.-To-day the people came in with the news that the "Comebay" herd, which, by the way, was in the valley of that name yesterday, had decamped towards Meenachpooram or Wursanaad, but to which of those two places the people were not sure. I had myself last night heard them bellowing and making a great riot in the river bed; we therefore determined to go upon their track, and started off at noon. After going S.E. for about three miles and putting up a herd of bison, which, of course, I did not meddle with, we came to the river, which we crossed and re-crossed, and then came upon the tracks of another herd.

I sat down, and sent out scouts, who presently came back and said that the elephants were in a thicket of brambles under some large forest trees. We made a long circuit to get to leeward of the herd, and then advanced upon them. The elephants were in a very thick cover of evergreen thorns; and, though I got to a clear spot within fifty yards of them, I could not see one of the herd. At last I crept into the thicket and sat down in a somewhat more open spot, and then I saw an elephant pass along within twenty yards of me. I waited, and another came in view, showing the side of the head at about the same distance; and I took a steady aim, and fired. The elephant threw up its trunk, turned half round, and fell over, dead. The herd, which consisted of eight or ten, broke in all directions, and I got a partial view of another; but, while waiting for a good sight of its head, I lost my opportunity, and they all went on to a thicker place than we had yet seen: there, having gone not more than three or four hundred yards, they all stopped. We went up to the dead elephant, which was shot through the temple, and measured it-eight feet four inches;

and then went after the herd. I found it impossible to get up to them; so I posted myself in an open space to leeward of the thicket in which they were ensconced, and sent some people (very strong smelling ones) to the windward side. When the elephants got the scent of these people, they moved off; but perversely took a slanting course, and did not come up to me. I followed them for more than a mile, and overtook them in a terribly thorny place on the bank of the river. Creeping in, I caught sight of one among the thorns, and fired at its temple. The next moment the whole jungle seemed in motion, and I half expected to be trampled under foot; but the herd swept by, and it was now too late to pursue them any farther. The elephant I had just fired at had fallen, but got up again, apparently none the worse for the crack on its skull, and its footprints were not distinguishable from those of its companions; so we turned our steps homewards.

December 20th.-This morning we had no news at all of elephants; so, at noon, I started on an expedition of discovery, but found no tracks. At about 4 P.M., while sitting on the bank of the river, we heard the roaring of elephants in the direction of Wursanaad; but it was too late to go to that distant jungle, so nothing was done this day. There being no elephant to be disturbed by firing, we tried to find bison, of which we had hitherto seen some each day; but now that they were wanted, we could find none.

December 21st.-I sent people this morning in the direction of Wursanaad. The Zemindar of Vullanuddee inflicted a visit upon me, and made himself remarkably stupid on the occasion. Hindoo magnates are mostly great boors as well as bores; their conversation usually is nothing but a string of questions, which to our notions savour strongly of impertinence-“How old are

you?” “ Are you married?" "How many children have you?"

"What pay do you get?"—and the like.

The scouts came back at 10 o'clock, and reported a small herd, about three miles off, near some tanks on the road to Wursanaad. I started immediately, and rode to the river, within a quarter of a mile of the place where the game were said to be. The watchers had seen them on the open ground in the cool of the morning, two small males and three females. We went into a jungle of high trees, with thick undergrowth of prickly bushes, and occasional belts of high luxuriant vege

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tation. Presently, while moving through this ground, we heard the elephant. Going on, we soon saw the head and back of a large elephant, and I tried to creep up to it. While I was doing so, it turned and came towards me. The path was very narrow, and much overhung with boughs and creepers. I could see nothing but the upper part of the elephant's forehead, and at this I fired. It stumbled and turned round, but did not fall, and, before I could well see what was happening, it disappeared. The herd was off immediately, and the wounded one with them, nor, such was the exceeding thickness of the cover, could I again catch a glimpse of either one or other, though I toiled on for a long time, hearing an occasional screech or roar in front of me. This was a day of defeat and disaster, and I went back to my tent sad and sulky, with my tail between my legs, making myself a nuisance to the shikarries on the way home, and a terror to my servants when I got there.

December 22nd.-I have little to record this day. I went out after a large tusker; but I think that my people had allowed him to wind them early in the morning, for, though he had evidently been this day in the place where he was reported to be, he had moved off and up the hills, and we did not see him.

December 23rd.-This morning I moved my camp about six miles to Shuliem pully, and arrived there at about 9 o'clock. There is no village here, but a clear space of about a mile in circumference, where cattle are folded during the hot weather, at which season they are pastured in great numbers in these jungles. Soon after my arrival, the Zemindar of Yelmudda, whom I had invited to meet me, came, with his brother, and a large tail of shikarries, guns, rifles, &c., all his armoury being in the last stage of dirt, rust, and neglect. Early in the afternoon news came of a herd of five elephants, all females, in a jungle about two miles from my tent. I went out with the Zemindar and his brother, both of them wearing very doubtful countenances. We found the elephants in a rather open jungle; but, it being warm, they were all huddled together in a thick clump of many-limbed trees, in such fashion that it was difficult to make out any particular features of the animals.

The Zemindar and his brother halted when we had arrived within about three hundred yards of the game, and I went on