opportunity offering, I had determined to make a start in one direction or another. At one time, indeed, Pandora's sealed casket seemed literally to have burst over our heads,—strife, war, famine, falsehood, and a thousand other evils, surrounded us. Still, however, hope remained in the box; so did we attach ourselves to this never- failing sheet-anchor, and despondency took wing as we abandoned ourselves without reserve to the sympathies she inspired. Jan. 8, 1824.—-My friend Tirab, the Shouaa generalissimo, had long promised to kill me an elephant, as he expressed himself; and this day, about' noon, a messenger came to our huts, saying, that, after hunting an enormous male elephant for five hours, they had at length brought him to a stand, near Bree, about ten miles northeast of Kouka. Mr. Toole and myself instantly mounted our horses, and, accompanied by a Shouaa guide, we arrived at the spot where he had fallen, just as he breathed his last. Although not more than twenty-five years old, his tusk measuring barely four feet six inches, he was an immense fellow. His dimensions were as under: Length from the proboscis to the tail ft. 25 m. 6 Proboscis - . 7 6 Small teeth . ; - 2 10 Foot longitudinally 1 7. E y e - „ 2 b y l f From the foot to the hip-bone 9 6 From the hip-boiie to-the back 3 0 Ear - , i, . . . . . 2 2 by 2 :6 ........... I had seen much larger elephants than this alive, when on my last expedition to the Tchad; some I should have guessed sixteen feet in height, and with a tusk probably exceeding six feet in length. The one before me, which was the first I had seen dead, was, however, considered as of more than common bulk and stature; and it was not until the Kanemboo of the town of Bree came out, and by attracting his attention with their yells, and teasing him by hurling spears at his more tender parts, that the Shouaas dared to dismount; when, by ham-stringing the poor animal, they brought him to the ground, and eventually despatched him by repeated wounds in the abdomen and proboscis: five leaden balls had struck him about the haunches, in the course of the chase, but they had merely penetrated a few inches into his flesh, and appeared to give him but little uneasiness. The whole of the next day the road, leading to the spot where he lay, was like a fair, from the numbers who repaired thither for the sake of bringing off a part of the flesh, which is esteemed by all, and even eaten in secret by the first people about the |sheikh: it looks coarse, but is better flavoured than any beef I found in the country. Whole families put themselves in motion, with their daughters mounted on bullocks, on this occasion, who, at least, hoped as much would fall to their share as would anoint their heads and persons plentifully with grease at the approaching fsug. The eyes of this noble animal were, though so extremely small in proportion to his body, languid and expressive even in death. His head, which was brought to the town, I had an opportunity of seeing the next day, when 1 had it opened; and the smallness of the brain is a direct contradiction to the hypothesis, that the size of this organ is in proportion to the sagaciousness of the animal. His skin was a full inch and a half in thickness, and dark gray, or nearly black, hard, and wrinkled: his ears, large and hanging, appeared to me the most extraordinary part about him, particularly from the facility with which he moved them backwards and forwards: his feet are round, undivided, and have four nails, or hoofs, for they cannot be called toes, two in the front of the foot, about an inch in depth, and two inches in length, which join each other, with two smaller ones on each side of the foot: In Africa they are scarcely ever taken alive, but hunted as a sport, for
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