y large elephant
with great tusks, and as it passed I sent an arrow into its back, which
caused it to cry out just as the first had done. We counted about forty
elephants in the herd, among which were three very large bull-elephants
with large tusks. The herd went through the bush to the watering-place
in the marsh, but did not return by the same path that they had followed
on going to the marsh. So we did not see them as they came back.

As soon as it was light we descended from the tree, and found ourselves
very stiff after sitting so long on the branches. After moving about a
little we got all right, and then agreed that we should follow the trail
of the two elephants that I had hit with my poisoned arrows.

The first thing to be done was to examine the feet-marks of these two
elephants. Now the under part of the foot of an elephant is not smooth,
but is marked by several small cracks; consequently when the elephant
treads on soft ground, it leaves a kind of plan or map of its foot. The
plans of no two elephants' feet are exactly alike, so that when you have
once studied the plan of a particular foot, you can recognise the
footprint when you see it in another place. It is just the same with
the inside of the thumb and top joint of each person's finger. The
grain of the skin makes a sort of pattern, and it rarely happens that
this pattern of each finger is the same; and it still more rarely
happens that the fingers of two people are alike. Having examined
several good impressions of the two elephants' feet, we went quickly out
of the bush, walked along the edge of the marsh, and then entered the
bush again at the place where the elephants had re-entered it. It was
easy to follow the elephants along the path they had made as they first
entered the bush, for along this they walked one after the other; but
when we had gone some distance into the bush, we found that the
elephants had separated, some going one way, some another. They had
also stopped to feed, and had broken off some very large branches from
their favourite trees. We now set to work to follow the footprints of
the two elephants that I had struck with the arrows. It was very
difficult at first, as the ground was very hard, and covered with dead
leaves; so that we could not obtain a good impression of the feet for
some time, and we were puzzled at first. At length we found an
ant-bear's hole in the ground, and near this the elephants had trodden