produced by the elephants bursting through the wood, and the tremendous screams of their wrathful voices resounding among the precipitous banks. Immediately a large female, accompanied by three others of a smaller size, issued from the edge of the jungle, which skirted the river margin. As they were not more than two hundred yards off, and were proceeding directly towards me, I had not much time to decide on my motions. Being alone, and in the middle of a little open plain, I saw that I must inevitably be caught, should I fire in this position, and my shot not take effect. I therefore retreated hastily out of their direct path, thinking they would not observe me, until I should find a better opportunity to attack them. But in this I was mistaken, for on looking back I perceived, to my dismay, that they had left their former course, and were rapidly pursuing and gaining ground on

me.

Under these circumstances I determined to reserve my fire as a last resource; and turning off at right angles in the opposite direction, I made for the banks of the small river with a view to take refuge among the rocks on the other side, where I should have been safe. But before I got within fifty paces of the river, the elephants were within twenty paces of me the large female in the middle, and the other three on either side of her, apparently with the intention of making sure of me; all of them screaming so tremendously, that I was almost stunned with the noise. I immediately turned round, cocked my gun, and aimed at the head of the largest, the female. But the gun, unfortunately, from the powder being damp, hung fire, till I was in the act of taking it from my shoulder, when it went off, and the ball merely grazed the side of her head. Halting only for an instant, the animal again rushed furiously forward. I fell—I cannot say whether struck down by her trunk or not. She then made a thrust at me with her tusk. Luckily for me she had only one, which still more luckily missed its mark; but it ploughed up the earth within an inch or two of my body. She then caught me with her trunk by the middle, threw me between her fore feet, and knocked me about with them for a brief space-I was scarcely in a condition to compute the number of minutes or

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seconds very accurately. Once she pressed her foot on my chest with such force, that I actually felt the bones, as it were, bending under the weight; and once she trod on the middle of my arm, which, fortunately, lay flat on the ground at the time. During this rough handling, however, I never entirely lost my recollection, else I have little doubt she would have settled my accounts with this world. But owing to the roundness of her foot, I generally managed, by twisting my body and limbs, to escape her direct tread. While I was still undergoing this buffeting, Lieutenant Chisholm, of the Royal African Corps, and Diederik, a Hottentot, had come up, and fired several shots at her, one of which hit her in the shoulder; and at the same time her companions, or young ones, retiring, and screaming to her from the edge of the forest, she reluctantly left me, giving me a cuff or two with her hind feet in passing. I got up, picked up my gun, and staggered away as fast as my aching bones would allow; but observing that she turned round, and looked back towards me, before entering the bush, I lay down in the long grass, by which means I escaped her observation.

"On reaching the top of the high bank of the river, I met my brother, who had not been at this day's hunt, but had run out on being told by one of the men that he had seen me killed. He was not a little surprised at meeting me alone and in a whole skin, though plastered with mud from head to foot. While he, Mr. Knight, of the Cape regiment, and I, were yet talking of my adventure, an unlucky soldier of the Royal African Corps, of the name of M'Clane, attracted the attention of a large male elephant, which had been driven towards the village. ferocious animal gave chase, and caught him immediately under the height where we were standing-carried him some distance in his trunk-then threw him down, and bringing his four feet together, trod and stamped upon him for a considerable time, till he was quite dead. Leaving the corpse for a little, he again returned, as if to make quite sure of his destruction, and kneeling down, crushed and kneaded the body with his fore-legs. Then seizing it again with his trunk, he carried it to the edge of the

jungle, and threw it among the bushes. While this tragedy was going on, my brother and I scrambled down the bank as far as we could, and fired at the furious animal, but we were at too great a distance to be of any service to the unfortunate man, who was crushed almost to a jelly,

Shortly after this catastrophe, a shot from one of the people broke this male elephant's left fore-leg, which completely disabled him from running. On this occasion, we witnessed a touching instance of affection and sagacity in the elephant, which I cannot forbear to relate, as it so well illustrates the character of this noble animal. Seeing the danger and distress of her mate, the female before mentioned (my personal antagonist), regardless of her own danger, quitted her shelter in the bush, rushed out to his assistance, walked round and round him, chasing away the assailants, and still returning to his side and caressing him; and when he attempted to walk she placed her flank under his wounded side and supported him. This scene continued nearly half an hour, until the female received a severe wound from Mr. C. Mackenzie, of the Royal African Corps, which drove her again to the bush, where she speedily sank exhausted from the loss of blood; and the male soon after received a mortal wound also from the same officer.

“Thus ended our elephant-hunt; and I need hardly say, that what we witnessed on this occasion, of the intrepidity and ferocity of these powerful animals, rendered us more cautious in our dailings with them for the future."

CHAPTER VIII.

Wars with the Wild Beasts; Lion-hunting-Notices and Anecdotes of other Animals; Leopards; Hyænas; the Hippopotamus and Rhinoceros; the Buffalo; the Gnu; the Quagga; the Ursine Baboon, &c.-The Secretary Bird-Hanging Nests of the Loxia and Weaver-birdSerpents; Antidotes against the effects of their poisonThe Guana, and other Reptiles—Insects—Locusts— Exuberance of Animal Life.

I SHALL devote this chapter to cursory notices of some of the more remarkable families of the Animal Kingdom with which we became more or less acquainted, in the course of occupying a position on the outskirts of civilization; premising that these zoological scraps are intended for the general reader merely, and without pretension to add any gleanings of natural history worthy the particular attention of men of science.

In the first place, I shall now give some account of our wars with the beasts of prey-allowing, of course, due precedence to the lion. The first actual conflict of the Glen-Lynden settlers with this formidable animal occurred in June 1821, while I was absent from home,-having gone to meet the ActingGovernor at Somerset. The following were the circumstances, as detailed to me by the parties present. A horse was missing, belonging to old Hans Blok, one of our Mulatto tenants, which after some search was discovered by the foot-prints to have been killed by a lion. The boldest men of the settlement having assembled to give battle to the spoiler, he was traced to a secluded spot, about a mile or upwards from the place where he had seized his prey. He had carried the horse with him to devour it at his leisure, as is the usual practice of this powerful animal. On the approach of the hunters, the lion, after some little demur, retreated to a thicket in a shallow

endowed with extraordinary powers of vision, such an elevated watch-tower must afford great facilities for descrying afar off the game which they pursue, or the enemies whom they shun.

On subsequent occasions, I made excursions through other parts of the Ceded Territory. One of these was for the purpose of exploring the valley of the Mancazana, now called GlenPringle*. I was accompanied by some of our own party, and by Diederik and Christian Muller, renowned Dutch-African huntsmen. We slept one night at the mouth of a subsidiary dell, which I named Elephant's Glen, from the circumstance of its wooded recesses being then inhabited by a troop of those gigantic animals, whose strange wild cry was heard by us the whole night long, as we bivouacked by the river, sounding like a trumpet among the moonlight mountains.

The scenery both of this and of the other chief branches of the Koonap river was of a very impressive character. The aspect of the country, though wild, was rich and beautiful. It was watered by numerous rivulets, and diversified with lofty mountains and winding vales, with picturesque rocks and shaggy jungles, open upland pastures, and meadows along the river margins, sprinkled as usual with willows and acacias, and occasionally with groves of stately yellow-wood. Many of the mountain sides and kloofs were clothed with woods of large timber. At the time I refer to, the whole of this tract had been for some years abandoned to the undisputed occupation of the wild animals, which had consequently flocked to it in great numbers from the surrounding districts. In no other part of South Africa have I ever seen so many of the larger sorts of antelopes; and the elephant, the rhinoceros, and the buffalo were also to be found in the forests, though we saw none of these animals on this occasion. But the remains of Caffer hamlets, scattered through every grassy nook and dell, and now fast crumbling to decay, excited reflections of a very melancholy character, and occasion

*There is another Mancazana in the Ceded Territory-one of the sources of the Kat River. The name is derived from the Amakosa term Umkasana, or Amakasana, and signifies the River of Girls.'