killed, as
though in despair, and they would not make a rush: these may be
pleasant, but are undoubtedly rare, chances for the pot-hunter. Gordon
Cumming's plan of lying in wait for the elephants at their
drinking-place was a bold and successful plan. I cannot but think him a
very lucky man never to have had a wounded bull charge him then; had one
done so, I fear we should not have had his amusing lectures, or his own
account of his wonderful sport.

Many methods of elephant-hunting may never have come to light, owing to
the enterprising sportsman having been crushed to death by his
infuriated game before he had an opportunity of making public his
experience.

An elephant can run very fast, and moves with surprising ease and
silence.

I remember hearing tales as a boy of the elephant's beginning to turn
early in the morning, and managing to finish his gymnastic performance
by mid-day; the wily hunter, therefore, by keeping behind, him was
always safe.

My own experience is very different from this: I have seen them turn
round and crash away through the forest with nearly the rapidity of a
large buck; and a man's speed stands but a poor chance in comparison
with theirs. In the thick underwood or reeds a man is continually
impeded, while an elephant walks through everything with the greatest
ease; a horse, however, in open ground gets away from an elephant,
especially when going up hill, the weight of the latter being much
against it on rising ground.

The elephant stands very high in the class of wise animals, and, I
believe, is as fully susceptible of a moral lesson as is a schoolboy.
When a large herd is but seldom disturbed by man, but on each visit five
or six elephants are killed, and two or three more die of their wounds,
the remainder then have a very great dread of the smell of a biped, and
the report of his gun; but when elephants are disturbed very frequently,
and only one shot obtained at them, which wounds and annoys, but may not
kill, they become very savage, and, upon smelling their teasing enemy,
are at once furious and vindictive. The herds that came into the Natal
bush were of this latter disposition; they were frequently disturbed,
and sometimes fired at, but without any great result, as the density of
the cover rendered it almost impossible to get more than one shot; and a
single bullet rarely carries immediate death.

The bush for many miles up the Natal coast was impenetrable, except by