alone, in the earlier ages of the world, we have any positive knowledge, and that but a very limited one, we are struck with the remarkable contrast between their powers of acute and subtle disputation, their extraordinary success in abstract reasoning, and their intimate familiarity with subjects purely intellectual, on the one hand; and, on the other, with their loose and careless consideration of external nature, their grossly illogical deductions of principles of sweeping generality from few and ill-observed facts, in some cases, and their reckless assumption of abstract principles, having no foundation but in their own imaginations, in others; mere forms of words, with nothing corresponding to them in nature, from which, as from mathematical definitions, postulates, and axioms, they imagined that all phenomena could be derived, all the laws of nature deduced."

"The physical researches of Aristotle," says Professor Powell, "present an extraordinary mixture of sound and chimerical opinions. His vast and industrious collection of facts in natural history evinces the sober and patient inquirer; his mechanics contain something of the real application of mathematical reasoning; whilst his physical speculations display all the extravagance of gratuitous theorising and verbal dogmatism. He attributed absolute levity to fire, and gravity to earth; considering air and water as of an intermediate nature. He considered gravity to be a tendency to the centre of the earth, which he also regarded as the centre of the universe. He also introduced the celebrated principle of Nature's abhorrence of a vacuum."

But whatever may be the merits or defects of the writings of Aristotle, it became a fashion, in what are called the "middle ages," to regard them as the great and infallible "text-book" of all philosophy. "In the early ages of the church," says Sir John Herschel, "the writings of Aristotle were condemned, as allowing too much to sense and reason; and even so late as the twelfth century they were sought and burned, and their readers excommunicated. By degrees, however, the extreme injustice of this impeachment of their character was acknowledged: they became the favourite study of the schoolmen, and furnished the keenest weapons of their controversy, being appealed to in all disputes, as of sovereign authority; so that the slightest dissent from any opinion of the 'great master, however absurd or unintelligible, was at once drowned by clamour, or silenced by the still more effectual argument of bitter persecution. If the logic of that gloomy period could be justly described as 'the art of talking unintelligibly on matters of which we are ignorant,' its physics might, with equal truth, be summed up in a deliberate preference of ignorance to knowledge, in matters of every day's experience

and use."

In that "gloomy period" appeared Roger Bacon, one of the "morning star: " which preceded the rising of the sun of true science. Roger Bacon lived in the thirteenth century, and was an ecclesiastic of the Franciscan order; but his mind was far in advance of his age. He was one of the very few enlightened men who endeavoured, in a period of very general ignorance, to lead his fellow-men to the true sources of science, and was consequently rewarded, not only with envy and hatred, but with actual persecution, having suffered imprisonment, and had his writings condemned. (See a brief sketch of his character in No. 58.) Не had a theoretical knowledge of the composition of gunpowder, and had an idea of the telescope; and though he believed in astrology and alchemy, and other absurdities of his age, those who have studied his writings, and are acquainted with the character of both the man and his times, consider him to have been a philosopher of no ordinary stamp-one of those who sow the seeds of truth, to produce fruit in after-ages.

Nearly three centuries elapsed between the death of Roger Bacon and the birth of his great namesake, Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam; the one having died in 1292, the other having been born in 1561. In that interval appeared Nicolaus Copernicus, who began the construction of the modern system of astronomy, which was carried on by Tycho Brahé, Kepler, Galileo, &c., and completed by Newton, with the aid of his contemporaries and successors. As, however, we shall have to revert to these names again, and give some account of what they did, we shall pass on to Lord Bacon, who, along with his contemporary, Galilei Galileo, may be said to have fairly overthrown the old false systems of mental and physical philosophy, and laid the foundations of the true in their stead.

Lord Bacon was the youngest son of an eminent judge and statesman, Sir Nicholas Bacon, and was born in London in 1561. Though bred to the profession of the law, and connected with powerful families, he was a long time a struggler: but though kept somewhat in the background during the reign of Elizabeth, he began to rise on the accession of James I.; was made a knight, attorney-general; became what his father had been, keeper of the great seal, and at last became a lord, and chancellor of England. As a man, he fell from his high eminence. He was accused of taking bribes, in order to wrest the course of justice; the House of Commons took the matter up, and several cases of gross corruption were clearly brought against him. It was not avarice but need, and a foolish weakness, which thus caused him to sully his judicial and professional character, and to disgrace the woolsack. He permitted a wasteful extravagance in his household, and his servants were the agents of his temptation. He was justly punished; being confined in the Tower, stripped of his offices, and subjected to a fine of forty thousand pounds. He never afterwards held up his head, but lived in retirement, spending his days chiefly in scientific pursuits. He died in 1626, in the sixty-sixth year of his age; saying, in his will, "My name and memory I leave to foreign nations, and to my own countrymen, after some time be passed over.”

This is the man, the "glory of the woolsack and the shame," whose writings helped essentially to revolutionise the human intellect. "By the discoveries of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo," says Sir John Herschel, "the errors of the Aristotelian philosophy were effectually overturned, on a plain appeal to the facts of nature; but it remained to show, on broad and general principles, how and why Aristotle was in the wrong; to set in evidence the peculiar weakness of his philosophising, and to substitute in its place a stronger and a better. This important task was executed by Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, who will, therefore, be looked upon in all future ages as the great reformer of philosophy, though his own actual contributions to the stock of physical truths were small, and his ideas of particular points strongly tinctured with mistakes and errors, which were the fault rather of the general want of physical information of the age, than of any narrowness of view on his own part; and of this he was fully aware." We shall give some account of Lord Bacon's chief work in our next paper.

PRONUNCIATION OF THE LATIN.

SPEAKING of the proper pronunciation of the Latin, Niebuhr said, "Why should we not adopt the Italian pronunciation? As to the pronunciation of the c, it is clear that the Romans did not pronounce it in the German way, Tsitsero; this is altogether an uncouth northern sound. To pronounce it like Sisero (with hard s) is equally wrong; no inscription, or other trace, induces us to believe that the Romans used e as equivalent to s. Besides, if we see that each nation pronounces Latin according to the pronunciation of the vernacular tongue, it is preposterous to maintain that one or the other is the correct pronunciation, except the

pronunciation of the Italian itself. That the g is not pronounced hard as the German *, seems clear from the fact that most nations pronounce it soft. On the whole, Latin reads much better in the Italian way; and I think many passages of the poets require this pronunciation to receive their full value. People ought to agree to adopt this pronunciation; for it is too ridiculous to find the same language pronounced differently in every country, and subjected to all the caprices of the various idioms. The Spaniards sometimes claim to be, by way of tradition, in possession of the true Roman pronunciation. It is equally preposterous that they whose language is so much more mixed, and whose country was never more than a province, should have retained a better pronunciation than the people of the mother-country! Italian is still, in a degree, a Latin dialect."-Lieber's Reminiscences of Niebuhr.

* The German g is pronounced like the English in give.

BOOKS AND BOOK-STALLS.

It is an old observation, that a large library does not necessarily make a learned man: and a person may acquire a very exact and comprehensive knowledge by the aid of a small but well-used collection of books. We do not, however, despise a "large" library -so far from it, indeed, that we only wish we had one. Still, a large library is of very little use to many people who reckon themselves very intelligent. They do not know how to use it, and they buy books on much the same principle that a lady buys trinkets, a virtuoso "curiosities," and a child toys.

owner.

We know one individual who, from his youth up, has had a devouring passion for accumulating books and "literary treasures." Prodigious have been his pains in copying prose and poetry, and in "cutting out" passages from newspapers; his shelves are crammed with collections, of which it may be said, reversing the usual style of an advertisement for the recovery of a lost document, that they are of use to almost anybody but the In the same way, he has been at great expense for a bookcase, and storing it with handsome books, very few of which he has read, and of those he has glanced over he can give but small account. This book-gathering passion may be indulged in harm lessly-nay, even usefully-by a monied man; but in a poor man it is ridiculous. A few nicely-bound books in a nice bookcase constitute a very pretty piece of furniture; but an avaricious passion for a mere accumulation of books is nearly as bad as the habits of the misers in the olden time, in storing up their gold and silver.

The late Mr. Heber, one of our modern bibliopoles, was a noted recent instance of a rich man indulging in a bibliomania. His large library is now dispersed-truly did he "heap up" books, not knowing who would "gather them!" When he was in town, he was a very regular visitor on Sundays of a noted dealer in old books. Just as the bells were about to ring for church, and all the good folks were about to trudge forth to their respective places of worship, would Mr. Heber present himself at the "old" bookman's door, which was afterwards, of course, carefully closed against all intrusion. There was an arm-chair respectfully set for him; the attentive bookseller had the various "treasures" he had picked up during the week ranged at hand; while the "shopboy" also, deprived, like a chemist's apprentice, of his "one day," was in attendance to rummage amongst the stores. Thus, during the forenoon's service, would Mr. Heber's book-bill mount upwards; and books were added weekly to his library, hundreds of which he never looked on again.

It was confidently affirmed, that "cheap literature" would destroy the old book-stalls, that "standard libraries" would put old books out of all fashion; yet, strange to say, the "old book trade" is more thriving now in London than ever. Greater quantities of old or second-hand books are bought than there used to be; and owing to a greatly-increased demand from the United States,

their value has been considerably augmented. But easy as it may seem to embark in this trade, it is not everybody who can read a title-page who is fit to keep an old-book stall.

We can understand the bibliomania of such men as Sir Walter Scott and Charles Lamb; we can understand and sympathise with the bibliomania of poor students, who buy books to read, and read them, we can feel what was the force of that passage before cheap literature" came in vogue,

"I saw a boy, with eager eye,
Open a book upon a stall,
And read as he'd devour it all;
Which when the stallman did espy,
Soon to the boy I heard him call-
'You, sir, you never buy a book,
Therefore in one you shall not look."
The boy pass'd slowly on, and with a sigh
He wish'd he never had been taught to read,

Then of the old churl's books he should have had no heed."

But we cannot understand the bibliomania of people whose learning lies in title-pages and book-backs-our taste is not a dusty one. From this inferred censure we must exclude artists, some of whom pick up old books almost expressly for their title-pages: but then these title-pages are frequently exquisite specimens of antique art.

A young surgeon has given us the following personal "confessions of a bibliomaniac," which we hope will be useful to more than one of our readers:

My vicious propensity to possess and hoard up books exhibited itself among the earliest of my likes and dislikes. No pic ture-book leaves were found lying about our floor after I was able to pick them up: all my little book-presents were kept as clean and as carefully as if I had been an apprentice to a bookseller. At school, too, I used to exchange my marbles for the books of my schoolfellows, and was invariably resorted to by them when their stock ran short, and they had still a book in their possession which they could part with. Many of these little books I could show even now, with a considerable part of each of the yellow flyleaves scratched white, in order to erase the name of some one of my schoolfellows.

At this time even, I was very fond of reading, and have been till now, though certainly not more so than many around me. From my knowledge of books and other circumstances I was chosen librarian of our school-library, and in the exercise of this office my appetite for books increased considerably; every farthing which I could command was spent in books, and when I left school my library consisted of upwards of one hundred volumes, chiefly juvenile, however, and selected with little respect to their intrinsic value.

Immediately on leaving school, I was sent to prosecute my studies at the college of Edinburgh, and for a month or two was so engaged with my studies that my ruling passion was but little exercised; but the Christmas holidays having come on, I was left more at leisure, and soon became acquainted with every secondhand book-shop and every book-stall in the town. Afterwards these were my daily haunts, and I soon became personally acquainted with their proprietors. Some part of every day was stolen to visit one or other of them; and never did I pass one, however limited my time, without waiting a minute to cast my eyes over the well-known volumes. All this was the height of folly; for often, when I had appropriated the intervening hour between two lectures to visit some distant book-stall, have I waited so long, as to arrive at my class far behind the hour, and so warmed by my quickened pace as to be unable to listen attentively to the professor's instructions and all for what? Simply for the gratification of seeing whether a single book had been added to the stock of a distant book-stall;-content if there had been none; but if there had, to have the feeling of envy raised within me for a book beyond my means of purchase, or imprudently to lay out my slender pittance on a book envied merely for its possession.

Over all these book-stalls and book-shops I exercised as it were a kind of superintendence, and was perhaps better acquainted with their stocks than many of the booksellers themselves. With almost every volume on every shelf, its place and price, I was well acquainted, and knew at once by my first glance whether "anything new" had appeared. On account of the smallness of my allowance, however, my passion exhibited itself not so much in purchasing books as in watching over the buying and selling of them by others. Now and then I did make a purchase; and this was the ostensible reason for the frequency of my visits, with which I quieted my conscience for mispent time. There can be no doubt that the desire to purchase was strong within me, though the pockets were weak.

The same passion led me into another channel to gratify itself. Book-auctions were not unfrequent in Edinburgh, and many an hour did I spend-idly spend-night after night, at these haunts, and often without a single farthing in my pocket-my sole object merely to see a certain book sold, to learn its price, and to go home envying its purchaser. Often now do I wonder how, on a cold winter's night, I could leave my own snug little room and cheerful fire, with my well-kept library, and the last added book-so long envied before enough was saved to purchase it-to stand for hours among a crowd of book-stall keepers and eager bibliopolists, waiting the sale of a book which I well knew I could but envy.

From the first year of my studies till their completion my bibliomania was rampant, and my time mispent, as I have described, hunting after books which I could not purchase, and purchasing often when my means could ill afford it, and when my sole object was possession.

Ere the completion of my studies, I was well acquainted with the names and intrinsic value of innumerable books; and the desultory reading of my purchases, with the conversations of my bookselling friends, enabled me to talk pretty smoothly of the merits of authors: but in real knowledge, relating to subjects foreign to my profession at least, I was miserably deficient, for few-very few indeed of those books, to possess which I spent my money and so much of my time, had been studied as they ought to have been: many of them, in truth, had never been opened from the day of their purchase, and were of value to me only as they adorned my shelves. Idle pursuit! one half of the time which I spent in the purchase of these unread books, if rightly employed, would have instructed me in many branches of useful knowledge which I left unheeded to purchase with my ignorance a knowledge of the titlepages, ages, editions, and prices of old and unread tomes.

Bibliomaniacs, as I was, are more numerous than is generally believed. I have met with many persons, and more especially young men, whose conversations on books betrayed them to me as bibliopolists; and from many with whom I first became acquainted by meeting them at my book-haunts, have I learned that the passion in them was equally strong, and its effects equally bane. ful as in myself.

A friend who knew all my favourite book-stalls and book-shops, used always, when walking with me, to break from my arm whenever we came near one of them, and run past the stall or window, that I might not indulge in my favourite propensity. If a stranger accompanied me through the streets, I very seldom had fortitude to resist a peep at some stall or other; and on such occasions I am sure I must often have given offence by my conduct.

If I visited another town, the book-marts were my principal attraction: it was impossible for me to pass one without running my eyes over its contents, and examining those books which were new to me. If the prices were affixed, my enjoyment was enhanced; for it was painful to ask the prices of all those that I had an itching for.

I remember once paying a visit to Leith, where on a stall I found a book which some time previously I had seen marked in a bookseller's catalogue "very rare." I immediately hailed it as my own, though, beyond the knowledge of its rarity, I was altogether ignorant of its merits, never once having heard or seen its name mentioned till I saw it in the bookseller's catalogue. Its price wasexactly the amount of my whole stock of cash, and being wearied with rambling about the sea-shore, I had previously determined on riding home. In this dilemma I prudently resolved to forego the purchase of the book, and followed up my resolve by at once taking out and paying for my seat at the coach-office, lest my passion might prevail over my prudence. The money paid, and all hopes of possossing the " very rare" book being gone, I longed more than ever to have it, and blaned my rashness for not considering better before foregoing its purchase. These feelings increased as the coach rattled along, and carried me away from the object of my wishes. Almost the first person that I met in Edinburgh was my kind friend, whom I immediately hailed, borrowed a couple of shillings from him, and ere ten minutes from my arrival was again on my way to Leith, to possess myself of the "very rare "book. It was soon mine, and I was as proud as if I had found a treasure. -I have not yet read it !

Last year I came to London, and immediately commenced my book-stall peregrinating system; but the extent of the field sickened me, and being soon convinced that indulgence in my old propensity would utterly ruin my professional prospects, like a true Scot I threw it to the dogs, and stuck to physic. Bitterly do I now lament the time mispent in the indulgence of my passion; and I would urgently impress upon all who have a like propensity, the superior satisfaction and delight which I have felt since giving it up, in the enjoyment of the internal beauties of those books which formerly I valued only FOR THEIR POSSESSION.

HUNTING IN THE ISLAND OF CEYLON.

WE proceed now, as promised in the previous Number, to make some extracts from Major Forbes's volumes, relative to his adventures, not in the battle, but the chase. We must, however, first give his adventures with a creature somewhat smaller than an elephant. When he was on an excursion, in 1832, to inspect some ruins, he says,

"Whilst stooping down to examine the sluice at the Kalawa tank, I suddenly found myself completely overspread by that greatest of living torments within the tropics-viz. ticks. From the effect of their bites I suffered much inconvenience for several weeks, and was obliged to leave this very warm part of the country immediately, without waiting either to complete the business which had brought me down, or to make some farther excursions which I had projected in Nuwarakalawia. Ticks are to be found in all the dry parts of Ceylon; often banded together in lumps containing several thousand, they remain attached to some leaf, which, if touched by an unwary passenger, discharges a shower of these pestilent vermin, which soon make their presence known by bites resembling the application of red-hot needles, followed by intolerable itching. Ticks, although sometimes much larger, are in general about the size of a pin's head; they are round, hard, flat, and adhere with wonderful pertinacity to the skin of men or animals, into which they occasionally contrive to introduce themselves. They disregard all attempts to kill or remove them by any application except actual force; but the natives having the benefit of much practice in putting to death other animals of similar habits, pick off, and subject them to interdigital trituration with much ability and zest; their practice in this respect corresponding with that of the most classical nations of civilised Europe.

"It may, however, be satisfactory to those who may visit tropical climates to know, that the longer they remain in them, the less are insects and their bites regarded; and the sojourner of ten years' standing may hear with complacency what he had often listened to with impatience, particularly on first landing, - Don't scratch moschetto bites;' which is a warning commonly offered in sincerity by old residents, and neglected from necessity by new

comers.

w

The Major does not think that "tee-totalling" will do in Ceylon.

" I was in the habit," he says, " if I had been travelling in the sun, of taking a bumper of madeira and an equal quantity of warm water: this was a sufficient restorative; and prevented my being chilled, while dressing, in the currents of air that find free passage through most rest-houses, and are inseparable from all leaf-huts. If much exhausted by violent exercise or long exposure to the sun, I took brandy-and-water; but always in small quantities-not more than a wine-glassful at a time: copious draughts, unless persevered in, (this is often impossible, and never advisable,) aggravate the evils of thirst and exhaustion which they are intended to subdue. Generous living is necessary for Europeans in Ceylon, and nothing is more likely to injure a constitution than bad fare and unnecessary abstinence; perhaps needless fear of climate is equally hurtful, for it prevents the timid from indulging in that change of air and scene which has proved so beneficial in health. The water-lapping hypochondriac and the trembling valetudinarian cannot expect to enjoy themselves in Ceylon: the one has not the strength, the other wants the courage, to visit the magnificent and exciting scenery of this lovely island. In rocks, rivers, mountains, forests,--all that is grand and beautiful in nature, he sees but forms behind which may lurk some demon of disease, that has no existence but in his own distempered fancy. To maintain a sound constitution in Ceylon, it is only necessary to live well, avoid excess, eschew indolence, take sufficient exercise for the body, and give constant employment to the mind. I consider the use of Chinese umbrellas to be of material service in preserving health; they are procured at a trifling expense, are easily carried, and, being formed of paper covered with thick black varnish, are an effectual protection against the rays of the sun. Many Europeans despise this precaution; but no native willingly exposes himself to the sun or rain if he can procure an umbrella, or its substitute in the shape of a talapat, palmyra, plantain, or aram leaf."

The following is a mixed narrative, showing that even the pleasure of elephant-shooting is not without sundry drawbacks.

"On our arrival at Avisavellé, the Modeliar informed us that the large herds were at some distance off, and in a very dense jungle; but that he had certain information of a hora-alia (rogueelephant) that was little more than a mile from the rest-house. Against this one we determined immediately to proceed. Natives believe a rogue elephant to be a turbulent member expelled by the unanimous consent and assistance of a whole herd; also, that he is destructive to crops and dangerous to people, and is alike dreaded by his own kindred and by the inhabitants in the neighbourhood of his haunts; he seldom ranges beyond ten or fifteen miles, and is generally to be found in the same forest. Some rogue elephants have killed many people; for, having once overcome their dread of man, and made a successful essay, homicide seems to become to them a favourite amusement: they have been known repeatedly to remain quiet near some jungle-path (contrary to their usual habit, which is to be always in motion,) until a victim come within their reach. I afterwards knew an instance of a rogue-elephant in mid-day coming into an open field, killing a woman by trampling her to death, and then leisurely returning to the forest; neither irritation in the animal, nor any inducement to the act, could be perceived by a number of persons who were near the unfortunate victim. It is more easy to account for rogueelephants attacking natives carrying loads of rice; this often happened during the Kandian rebellion, although many of those Coolies (baggage-porters) who were missing, and supposed to have been killed, merely kept out of the way, and concealed themselves until a change of circumstances should free them from the comJulsory execution of a most arduous, fatiguing, and dangerous

service.

"From Avisavellé we passed down the bank of the Seetawaka liver, through scenery which closely resembled an English park;

fine glades of green turf, with clumps, thickets, and forest-trees of enormous size, gave beauty to this woodland scene, until we arrived at a thick bamboo jungle. Into this we entered, and filed along a narrow, damp, dark buffalo track: here the fallen leaves seemed to be alive, from the innumerable land-leeches that moved amongst them; and it required the excitement of a wild elephant in the thicket to prevent me from stopping to pluck these ferocious vermin from my feet, hands, and neck. In passing along, our guide stopped, and reaching up his hand, pointed to a tree, the trunk of which was coated with mud at least as far as nine feet from the ground: this showed us the height of the elephant of which we were in pursuit, and who had been lately using this tree as a scratching-post. A little farther on, and the native, who was leading, suddenly stopped, and bending his head almost to the ground, pointed to a small open swamp, at the same time drawing in his breath, and repeating rapidly in a whisper, Onna! onna! onna! (There! there! look there!) Kneeling down amongst legions of leeches, I was just in time to see a huge elephant slowly raising himself from his luxurious mud-bath in a shady quagmire: for a moment I hoped he was about to charge at us; and I was the more impressed with this opinion from the instantaneous shifting of our guide from the front to the rear of our party, in which position he would no doubt have been equally ready to lead the retreat, as, to do him justice, he had been forward to head the advance. The animal, still but indistinctly seen, paused for a second, then blew sharp through his trunk, curle it close up, wheeled round, and tore through the thick-set bamboos, which appeared to yield before and close behind his ponderous figure. It was impossible to follow into such a jungle; we therefore sought the open ground, and commenced shooting pigeons, which we found in considerable numbers and variety. On two different occasions, this day, large snakes glided from before me, and disappeared amongst the decayed leaves of the jungle. Whether they belonged to the class of the harmless garindi (rat snake), or to the poisonous nága (hooded snake), I could not decide, as I had not as yet learned to distinguish between these serpents, which are as similar in appearance as they are different in cha

racter.

"I cannot sufficiently account for the wondrous few accidents that occur from snakes in Ceylon; that desire, common to all animals, to shun the path of man, appears to me the only reason of much force which I have heard advanced. From experience I can assert that snakes, even poisonous ones, are very numerous, and the few deaths which they cause is to me quite incomprehensible; therefore, the timidity of new-comers on this head is not only a natural impulse, but a rational feeling, and only gives way gradually before long habit and continued impunity. Elephant shots get much sooner rid of their fears on this subject than other people do, as the excitement of the sport absorbs all minor feelings, and snakes are not thought of when elephants are to be pursued."

Now for an adventure with a herd of elephants, during which inexperience and rashness placed the hunting-party in great peril ; one of them meeting with serious injury.

"With heavy tread and noisy tumult the elephants came on, and rested, as far as we could judge from the sound, within twenty yards of us; and then again succeeded an interval of dead silence. To us they were still invisible, and the utmost straining of my eyesight was unable to gain me a glimpse of any of them: at this time anxiety and excitement made my senses so acute, that not only did I feel the pulses thump with unwonted violence, but the ticking of my watch sounded on my ear as if a church-clock had located itself in my pocket; neither could I turn my head without feeling and fancying I heard the joints of my neck creak on their pivots. The beaters in the mean time had advanced, and from a short distance behind and around the elephants arose loud shouts of people and the rolling of tom-toms: immediately the jungle in front of us seemed heaving forward, and a second or two only elapsed before the heads of the two leaders of the mass were distinct and bearing directly on us. I fired at the one immediately opposite to me, and not more than ten feet distant: he stopped, and was in the act of turning, when I fired again. Mr. S-- had also fired twice at the other leader, and with the same want of success; for the whole herd tore back through the brushwood, and rushed towards the hill.

"Ere we could load again, double shots from both our friends on the rising ground announced the direction which the elephants had taken, and caused some of them to turn down; and these we heard tearing through, and at length stationing themselves in, the