THE WILD ELEPHANT. 221

of danger. If wounded, however, he will sometimes turn upon
his aggressor with terrible vengeance. Mr. Burchell, the South
African traveller, gives a painful illustration of this. He says:—
“Carl Krieger was a fearless hunter, and being an excellent
marksman, often ventured into the most dangerous situations.
One day having, with his party, pursued an elephant which
he had wounded, the irritated animal suddenly turned round,
and singling out from the rest the person by whom he had
been injured, seized him with his trunk, and lifting his wretched
victim high in the air, dashed him with dreadful force
to the ground. His companions, struck with horror, fled
precipitately from the fatal scene, unable to look back upon
the rest of the dreadful tragedy; but on the following day
they repaired to the spot, where they collected the few bones
that could be found, and buried them. The enraged animal
had not only literally trampled Krieger’s body to pieces, but
did not feel its vengeance satisfied till it had pounded the
very flesh and bones into the dust, so that nothing of the
unfortunate man remained excepting a few of the latter,
which made most resistance from their size.” Another ele-
phant seized a soldier of the Royal African Corps, threw him
down, brought his four feet together and stamped upon him
until he was dead; then seizing the body with his trunk,
threw it into the jungle.

Hlephant Major Skinner in a communication made to

Herds. Sir E. Tennant gives the following graphic descrip-
tion of the actions of a herd of elephants he watched on one
occasion in the north of Ceylon. Knowing that from the
scarcety of water at that time and place a large herd of
elephants which he knew to be in the neighbourhood must
visit a certain pool during the night he made his preparations
accordingly. He says:—“ Having ordered the fires of my
camp to be extinguished at an early hour, and all my fol-
lowers to retire to rest, I took up my post of observation on
an overhanging bough; but I had to remain for upwards of