Leaving a small sample of my nose upon a kittar thorn, and tearing my way, with naked arms, through what, in cold blood, would have appeared impassable, I caught sight of two elephants leading across my path, with the herd following in a dense mass behind them.
Firing a shot at the leading elephant, simply in the endeavor to check the herd, I repeated with the left-hand barrel at the head of his companion.

This staggered him, and threw the main body into confusion.
They immediately closed up in a dense mass, and bore everything before them; but the herd exhibited merely an impenetrable array of hind quarters wedged together so firmly that it was impossible to obtain a head or shoulder shot.
I was within fifteen paces of them, and so compactly were they packed that with all their immense strength they could not at once force so extensive a front through the tough and powerful branches of the dense kittar.

For about half a minute they were absolutely checked, and they bored forward with all their might in their determination to open a road through the matted thorns.

The elastic boughs, bent from their position, sprang back with dangerous force, and would have fractured the skull of any one who came within their sweep.

A very large elephant was on the left flank, and for an instant he turned obliquely to the left.