The Brattleboro reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1907-1912, 1910-04-29

find out the strain in elephani.powcr u
would rrauirr 10 shif, a thirty foot head.
GEAR made Of heavy timber and boiled
with massive iron bolts, for the structure,
20 my vast relief, did not move IN the
slightest. Again he tried, taking better
hold with M trunk aud carefully aFrang.
ing his huge feet on the rubble scattered
about the ground once norr be failed,
and with a short impatient tfumpeiins
noi,e be let 20. Next he turned his atien-
lion TO my gun, which IN the scramble 10
get up | had lei, al the foot of the head
gear. This he caught hold Of with his
trunk by the muxklc, and after a pre-
liminary flourish in the AIR brought the
weapon down with crash against The
heavy timber the blow sphntering the
stock into matchwood; be then held up
what wa left OF the weapon at the length
of his trunk Having surveyed II cflti'
cally, he must have come 70 the concin-
sion that It was not finished 700, 20
he laid the barrels carefully and with
mathematical precision in the center OF
the footpath, and proceeded 10 do a sort
of eake.walk upon all that was still lett
OF nv iifteen.pound gun. From his point
OF view that dance was great success,
for he managed TO ilatten out the barrels
to the shape OF piece OF hoop'iron.
Pausing al last for a rect, and cooking
an evil eye up at me, he trmpeted loudly
10 the rest OF the herd TO come and see
how nicely he had got me up a tree,
beaming the while with evident satisiae-
ton on the destruction he had wrought
upon a weapon which | believe he must
have known instinctiyely meant death to
him. II used in the right way.
The herd were not long in turning up
10 gaze at what TO them must have APP
peared TO be an interesting but dangerous
specimen of the apes they have so often
seen in their wanderings through the Tor
est. Judging from the murmurng discus
sion which seemed to be going on among
them, | should not be surprised II they
were specializing on how ! had come TO
lose my tail, which they would otherwise
have expected TO see twisted around the
timbers of the headgear, as an extra
anchorage and security. l counted some
thirty odd adults in the herd, of whom
seven or eight were old 'tuskers,' the re-
mainder being young bulls and cows;
there were also a number OF calves, but
these being so intermixed with the rest 1t
was difficult to tell how many there &C.
tually were of them. The herd-viewed
from my point of vantage, perched on
the top OF the head-gear-presented o
grand spectacle, and one l am never likely
TO forget. but | can assure the reader
that il was with feelings OF unfeigned Joy
and relief that | at last heard the leader
trumpeting his command to the rest OF
the community to move on, and saw the
whole band move slowly and ponderously
away.
BY this time the sun had already set,
and as the moon was about to rise | wait
ed until was no longer able to hear the
cracking and swapping OF the branches,
as the herd moved rapidly forward on its
night march through the dense forest, be-
fore | ventured down from my eyre and
made my way home | have had a good
deal of adventure and experience in this
country in the way of hunting for. big
game, but this is the first time l have