.of the jungle, trusting to find their place of entrance
by the fresh broken boughs. ' In about an
hour we had thus examined two or three miles,
without discovering a clue to their recent path, when
we turned round a clump of bushes, and suddenly
came, in view of two grand elephants, standing at
the edge of the dense thorns; having our wind,
they vanished instantly into the thick jungle. We
could not follow them, as their course was down
wind; we therefore made a circuit to leeward for
about a mile, and, finding that the elephants had
not crossed in that direction, we felt sure that we
must come upon them with the wind in: our favour
should they still be within the thorny jungle ■ this
was certain, as it was their favourite retreat.
With the greatest labour I led the way, creeping
frequently upon my hands and knees to avoid the
hooks of the kittar bush, and “occasionally listening
for a sound. At length, after upwards of an hour
passed in this slow and fatiguing advance, I distinctly
heard 'the flap of an elephant’s ear, shortly
followed by the deep guttural sigh of one of those
animals, within a few paces, but so dense was the
screen of jungle that I could see nothing. We
waited for ‘ some minutes, but not the slightest
sound could be heard; the elephants were aware
of danger, and they were, like ourselves, listening
attentively for the first intimation of an' enemy.
This was a highly exciting moment; should they
charge, there-would not be a possibility- of escape,;