Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 4.djvu/328

300 the wood, he received a violent blow from a branch of a tree which the elephant had bent by his weight, and, after passing, allowed it to replace itself, when it knocked down both the riders, and very much hurt the horse. This, indeed, is the great danger in elephant-hunting; for some of the trees, that are dry and short, break, by the violent pressure of so immense a body moving so rapidly, and fall upon the pursuers, or across the roads. But the greatest number of these trees, being of a succulent quality, they bend without breaking, and return quickly to their former position, when they strike both horse and man so violently, that they often beat them to pieces, and scatter them upon the plain. Dextrous, too, as the riders are, the elephant sometimes reaches them with his trunk, with which he dashes the horse against the ground, and then sets his feet upon him, till he tears him limb from limb with his proboscis; a great many hunters die this way. Besides this, the soil, at this time of the year, is split into deep chasms, or cavities, by the heat of the sun, so that nothing can be more dangerous than the riding.

elephant once slain, they cut the whole flesh off his bones into thongs, like the reins of a bridle, and hang these, like festoons, upon the branches of trees, till they become perfectly dry, without salt, and they then lay them by for their provision in the season of the rains.

say nothing of the figure of the elephant, his form is known, and anecdotes of his life and character are to be found everywhere. But his description, at length, is given, with his usual accuracy and elegance, by that great master of natural history the Count de Buffon, my most venerable,