The Admiral, therefore, and by his desire all of us, made an attempt to carry the torches ourselves.

But we were soon so plaguily smoked and scorched for our pains, that we rested contented with the risk, and the bearers having gradually crept back to the palankeens, we once more moved on.
In spite of all that had passed, some of the party remained so doggedly sceptical, from being habitually distrustful of all things wonderful, that they declared the whole affair a mere matter of panic, and dared to swear there could not be found an elephant within fifty miles of us.

Scarcely had this opinion, so injurious to the honours and glories of our late adventure, been uttered, when the commander-in-chief, who, as usual, was leading the way, snatched a light from one of the men's hands, and waved it over what the geologists call a "recent deposit," half the size of a wheelbarrow, and out-rivalling in its column of smoke the muggiest torch in the line.
"There!" exclaimed the Admiral, better pleased than if he had found a pile of rupees, instead of so much recent Album Graecum.

"Will that evidence satisfy you?
How many hundred yards off do you think can the fellow be who left this trace of his proximity ?" It was past ten o'clock when we reached our tents, which had been pitched in the morning on the borders of the celebrated lake we came to visit.

All the party were well fagged, and so ravenously hungry, that we shouted for joy on seeing supper enter just as we came to the ground.
"This," said our excellent caterer the collector, "is the dish upon which we pride ourselves most at Trincomalee.