natives. Presently Nowell put his hand on my shoulder, and pointing
forward, I perceived the dark lump just rising above the tall grass,
less than forty yards off, with something moving about, which I soon
guessed was an elephant's ear, which it was flapping up and down.

Directly afterwards we made out another elephant close to it; and from
the peculiar movement of the grass in different places there could be no
doubt that we were close upon a large and just now scattered herd; but
as the grass was above their heads, we could not make out exactly how
many were in each spot. Again we all stopped, and Nowell signed to the
men to be excessively careful; the slightest noise would have alarmed
them. They might either have charged at us from different quarters, or
they might have turned tail and trotted off before we could get a shot
at them. The two elephants we had at first seen, there could be little
doubt, from their superior height, were the leaders of the herd, and
probably the rogue was, as usual, at no great distance. It was very
important, if we could, to ascertain his position, as he, we knew, was
most likely to be on the look-out, and to come suddenly upon us. We
retreated slowly to a rock, from whence we thought we should get a
better view over the sea of grass, when I stumbled and hit the butt of
my rifle against a stone. Slight as the noise was, it was enough to
awake the vigilance of the watchers. At the same moment, high up above
the grass went their trunks, and they blew the loud shrill note of
alarm. Immediately from different directions other trunks were thrown
up, each sounding an answering blast; and here and there the vast heads
of elephants appeared, with eyes glancing around, trying to ascertain
the nature of the danger of which their leaders had forewarned them.

All this time the two leaders were keeping up the most terrific,
rumbling roar, like peal upon peal of thunder, thus summoning the herd
to unite. However, they did not show any disposition to retreat, but
kept gazing at us with ears cocked, as if they fully intended us
mischief. We still kept as quiet as possible, hoping to see all the
herd unite before they attempted to decamp. In a short time a very
considerable number had assembled round the two leaders, and there they
stood gazing at our faces just appearing above the grass, and seemingly
meditating whether they should make a rush at us or not. Nowell seemed
to think that