stroke would have been the immediate result; but he is so hardened by the life he has led that nothing seems able to harm him. There he was, so energetic that it made us sweat to look at him, giving a hand here, directing an operation there, with his "boy" always behind him, carrying his double four-bore, firing twelve drams of powder and weighing 19 pounds. He knows well, by his great experience, the indispensability of a heavy rifle for such large game, and would not attempt to kill any big animals with a light rifle of a small bore, lest they might go off wounded and die a lingering death, and ultimately become food for the vultures and jackals.

When the Prince had taken his place, the gate was slowly raised, and by shouts and noises the herd was driven towards it; but only three or four were allowed to pass, and the barrier was then closed upon the rest, who sullenly took up their huddled position again in the centre of the enclosure, very sulky at not being allowed to follow their comrades into supposed freedom. The koomkies now surrounded

one of them, a young tusker, and after a few unsuccessful endeavors, he was at last hobbled, and then allowed to tire himself out, which he effectually tried to do by running as best he could all round the enclosure, trumpeting loudly all the time, and doubtless presenting to his comrades. in the small arena an inexplicable spectacle. There is a great variety of temperament observable in elephants. Young elephants, perhaps only a third grown, especially females, will always give most. trouble; these wild ones will always attack and chase any one on foot; but an active man on even ground can outstrip them, and it was always considered highly creditable to do this in as leisurely a manner as possible. The enclosure reminded one forcibly of the Plaza de Torres, and here, as there, we always applauded some daring feat. With shrill shrieks they would charge the men, with their trunks curled up out of harm's way and their ears well thrown forward, their whole demeanor proclaiming mischief. At last they were, one by one, hemmed in and well fastened to trees, and Mr. San

derson requested all spectators, including the personal staff of the Prince, to raise the gate as the beaters were away on other work-to let out some more.

This was accordingly done, and amongst them was the huge female before mentioned, with a very young calf about three feet high. This little animal, about two months old, was a great amusement to us, and a very great nuisance to the workers inside. It got into everybody's way, and had to be kept at a distance with kicks and stones. It kept running about, squeaking and screaming, amongst the legs of koomkies and wild ones alike, and seemed to object strongly to the whole proceeding. At last its mother was noosed, with the greatest difficulty, and surrounded, but nothing in the world could persuade her to go towards the tree; so a large hawser was fastened to the hobbles, and a koomkie, taking the end of the hawser in its mouth, and twisting its trunk well round it, gave it a turn round a tree, while several others pushed this giant mother towards it, the little one roaring most piteously the whole time. At last, after great exertions, she was close enough to be secured by the hind legs. As soon as she was left alone, she struggled in the most marvellous manner to free herself. Sometimes she would lie down and roll from side to side; then she would stand upright on her hind legs; next she would throw herself down again, and stand fairly on her head, with her legs well away from the ground, all the time trying to free them from their shackles, searching the ground all round her the while for a purchase, and pulling with tremendous power, which would almost burst the thick ropes with which she was tied. She was more furious than ever if her calf left her side, when she would take up stones and earth and fling them all over herself in her agony. Her exertions lasted over an hour and a half, and it was a most piteous sight to watch the poor animal's attempts to lull the screaming of her calf. It was this gigantic female that, breaking through the line of the koomkies, tried to re-enter the inner enclosure, but being frightened back again by some of the spectators, swerved round, and passed within a few yards of the Prince, who had entered the enclosure with Mr. Sanderson. It was an anxious moment for us spectators as to what the Prince would do; for had he retreated

hastily and suddenly, the leviathan would surely have charged him. But the Prince took the matter very coolly, and showed as much presence of mind as if these scenes occurred daily with him. Needless to say, we all appreciated much his coolness and courage and the daring he displayed in entering the kheddah. This was the event that gave rise to the sensational telegrams and the many congratulatory messages from all parts of the world on his providential escape. Many were the ludicrous scenes we witnessed also. Once a mahout and a nooser were swept off their koomkie's back by an overhanging branch, and picking themselves up, much dazed by their tumble, they made as quickly as possible for what they thought at the first moment to be their elephant, and only discovered when trying to mount that it was one of the wild ones. Ah, how they ran as the brute turned slowly round! It reminded me very forcibly of the famous Blondin donkey when assuming its most threatening attitude.

Amongst the koomkies the greatest bully was a splendid fighting tusker, "Jung Behadur." With a prod of his powerful tusks he would soon send most of the captives in the direction indicated by his mahout, and bully them into submission. They would by degrees resign themselves to their fate, even the great female at last, who looked the picture of disdain and comic grief, with her head and back covered with green fodder, which, instead of eating, she had sprinkled all over herself.

There was a young tusker who had watched all these proceedings with the greatest interest, and showed his displeasure at all that was going on by shambling round the inner enclosure, trumpeting loudly, and making every now and then endeavors to join his friends in the arena. At last, with mighty efforts, by butting the gate repeatedly, he got his head under it, and with all his colossal strength lifted the huge gate, weighing a couple of tons, and crept under. However, the results of his success proved very unsatisfactory for him, as, soon surrounded, he was quickly secured, and left to bemoan with sad demeanor this rash act that led him into so sad a predicament.

Night was now setting in, and we had to return. The jungle was waking up with its many mysterious sounds of the

night, and its inhabitants were beginning to move in search of prey; night-birds were fluttering silently about amongst the big trees, and the cry of the owl and nighthawk sounded with shrill distinctness in the gloom of the virgin forests. As we came near our tents, the lights of our torches frightened hundreds of flyingfoxes, whose wings sometimes measure, from tip to tip, forty-eight inches, who were holding high jinks in a majestic banian-tree, with its drooping suckers that form the new trunks, and which had already made it of a size large enough to shelter a battalion. With keen appetite we devoured our well-cooked dinner, and we sat till far into the night round the big log fire, sipping our brandy or whiskey paneeh, and many an old song, by some long forgotten, cropped up to remind us of days long gone by, and we wondered how on earth that fellow managed to pick it up, we naturally believing it to have been the sole property of a small set that then made merry, and at whose festive gatherings it was always called for; and we sang it that night with all the warmth and fervor due to an old and valued friend.

"Another fine day," exclaims the funny man of the party next morning, as we again made ready for our ride to the kheddah. The days were indeed glorious there, as we were in such magnificent air, and had quite escaped the hot, closesmelling atmosphere of the lower-lying country. Nothing more delightful can

be imagined than the early hours in these hills; they were bracing and cool, and we thoroughly enjoyed, as well as the Arab horses we rode, our canter over the springy turf of the paths. The day was spent again in tying up and other work necessary for the taming of the elephants. There were now two men appropriated to each elephant, who were busily building themselves huts close to their charges, and were feeding them, singing and talking to them the while, and by their constant presence they were accustoming the animals to their sight, and endeavoring to impress them with their friendliness. Troughs were made out of the hollowed trunks of date - trees, and pushed within their reach, and filled with water through bamboos. Some of the elephants would resent this attempt at intimacy immensely, and would kick or rush at their captor, while others would take no notice whatever, having resigned themselves completely to their fate; yet it would have inevitably ended in death, or, at any rate, broken bones, to have come within reach of their forelegs or trunks for a day or two. One or two absolutely refused to be quiet, and persistently kicked and tore at their bonds. Mr. Sanderson told me he had seen the sole of an elephant's foot come off in its entirety by its constant kicking; of course it had to be shot at once. The ropes or hawsers have to be changed after a day or two, and only one foot fastened, as by constant dragging they wear sores, and these have

to be carefully attended to, as otherwise they will soon fill with maggots and become very troublesome. The elephants will blow sand upon these wounds to keep off the flies, and this makes the rubbing of the ropes still worse. The mahouts use margosa oil, and apply it with a long mop. A few of the oldest elephants had to be shot, as it is impossible to tame those of great age, and if turned out into the forest again they become very vicious, and by remaining solitary would develop into the much- dreaded 66 rogue."

All shooting is done now with a fourbore, and the shot must be in the right place. The elephant's brain is a very small one, and protected with a very thick bone, so a rifle with great smashing power must be used. Poor Walter Ingram, the youngest son of the late Mr. Herbert Ingram, the originator and proprietor of the Illustrated London News, had to pay with his life for attempting to shoot one of these animals with a .450 Express. He was, in 1888, on a shooting trip with some friends in Somâli Land, East Africa, and having shot a fine tusker himself the day before, lent his four-bore to his friend to give him a chance. He rode out, attended by a few blacks, armed with his Express, and soon came across a very big brute with splendid tusks that he longed to secure. He rode close up to him and fired at his head; but the solid, hardened bullets of his .450 bore, with its hundred and twentyfive grains of powder, simply flattened against the bone. He kept on firing both barrels, and galloping out of the elephant's reach to reload, and so fired sixteen shots into him. After the last of these

shots, the pony suddenly refused to move, and seemed paralyzed with fear by the repeated and thundering charges of the brute. The elephant immediately rushed up, and before Ingram could think what to do, he was whisked off his

saddle, his brains dashed out against a tree, and his body trampled fairly into a jelly.

The elephant is now strictly preserved every where in India and Ceylon, and permission to shoot one is only given to a very few favored ones. If this were not done, they would by this time have entirely ceased to exist. Now they are only found in a wild state in India proper, in the north in Nepaul and Assam, in the south in Mysore, and a few in Ceylon. The capture in the last-named place was in 1863 as many as a hundred and seventy-three, but has dwindled down to a couple; so now the shooting and capture are entirely prohibited, and it is to be hoped that in a few years they will again roam about the forests of this little island in respectable numbers.

The great fair in India for the sale of elephants is held annually at Sonepoor, on the Ganges, at the time that hundreds of thousands of pilgrims assemble there to worship at the shrine of Siva and to bathe in the sacred river when the moon is full in the months of October and November. The same kind of thieving and swindling goes on amongst the elephantdealers as amongst the horsy fraternity.

LEADING HOME THE CAPTIVES.