up to Kleinboy for my double-barrelled two-
grooved rifle: he and Isaac were pale and
almost speechless with fright. Returning to
the charge, I was soon once more alongside,
and, firing from the saddle, I sent another
brace of bullets into the wounded elephant.
Colesberg was extremely unsteady, and
destroyed the correctness of my aim. The
'friend ' now seemed resolved to do some
mischief, and charged me furiously, pursuing me
to a distance of several hundred yards. I
therefore deemed it proper to give her a gentle
hint to act less officiously, and accordingly,
having loaded, I approached within thirty
yards, and gave it her sharp, right and left,
behind the shoulder; upon which she at once
made off with drooping trunk, evidently with
a mortal wound. Two more shots finished
her: on receiving them she tossed her trunk
up and down two or three times, and falling
on her broadside against a thorny tree,
which yielded like grass before her enormous
weight, she uttered a deep hoarse cry and
expired."

Mr. Cumming's exploits in the water are
no less exciting than his land adventures.
Here is an account of his victory over a
hippopotamus, on the banks of the Limpopo
river, near the northernmost extremity of his
journeyings.

"There were four of them, three cows and
an old bull; they stood in the middle of the
river, and, though alarmed, did not appear
aware of the extent of the impending danger.
I took the sea-cow next me, and with my first
ball I gave her a mortal wound, knocking
loose a great plate on the top of her skull.
She at once commenced plunging round and
round, and then occasionally remained still,
sitting for a few minutes on the same spot.
On hearing the report of my rifle two of the
others took up stream, and the fourth dashed
down the river; they trotted along, like oxen,
at a smart pace as long as the water was
shallow. I was now in a state of very great
anxiety about my wounded sea-cow, for I
feared that she would get down into deep
water, and be lost like the last one; her
struggles were still carrying her down stream,
and the water was becoming deeper. To
settle the matter I accordingly fired a second
shot from the bank, which, entering the roof
of her skull, passed out through her eye; she
then kept continually splashing round and
round in a circle in the middle of the river. I
had great fears of the crocodiles, and I did
not know that the sea-cow might not attack
me. My anxiety to secure her, however,
overcame all hesitation; so, divesting myself
of my leathers, and armed with a sharp knife,
I dashed into the water, which at first took
me up to my arm-pits, but in the middle was
shallower. As I approached Behemoth her
eye looked very wicked. I halted for a
moment, ready to dive under the water if she
attacked me, but she was stunned, and did
not know what she was doing; so, running
in upon her, and seizing her short tail, I
attempted to incline her course to land. It
was extraordinary what enormous strength
she still had in the water. I could not guide
her in the slightest, and she continued to
splash, and plunge, and blow, and make her
circular course, carrying me along with her as
if I was a fly on her tail. Finding her tail
gave me but a poor hold, as the only means of
securing my prey, I took out my knife, and
cutting two deep parallel incisions through
the skin on her rump, and lifting this skin
from the flesh, so that I could get in my two
hands, I made use of this as a handle, and
after some desperate hard work, sometimes
pushing and sometimes pulling, the sea-cow
continuing her circular course all the time
and I holding on at her rump like grim Death,
eventually I succeeded in bringing this
gigantic and most powerful animal to the bank.
Here the Bushman quickly brought me a
stout buffalo-rheim from my horse's neck,
which I passed through the opening in the
thick skin, and moored Behemoth to a tree.
I then took my rifle, and sent a ball through
the centre of her head, and she was numbered
with the dead."

There is nothing in "Waterton's Wanderings,"
or in the "Adventures of Baron
Munchausen" more startling than this "Waltz
with a Hippopotamus!"

In the all-wise disposition of events, it is
perhaps ordained that wild animals should be
subdued by man to his use at the expense of
such tortures as those described in the work
before us. Mere amusement, therefore, is
too light a motive for dealing such wounds
and death Mr. Cumming owns to; but he had
other motives,—besides a considerable profit
he has reaped in trophies, ivory, fur, &c., he
has made in his book some valuable
contributions to the natural history of the animals
he wounded and slew.

CHIPS.

A MARRIAGE IN ST. PETERSBURG.

A FAIR Correspondent supplies us with the
following "Chip" from St. Petersburg:—

In England we used to think the marriage
ceremony, with all its solemn adjuncts, an
impressive affair; but it is child's play when
compared with the elaborate formalities of a
Russian wedding. In England, the bride,
though a principal, is a passive object; but in
Russia she has, before and at the ceremony, to
undergo as much physical fatigue and exertion
as a prima donna who has to tear through
a violent opera, making every demonstration
of the most passionate grief. But you shall
hear how they manage on these occasions.

The housekeeper of Mons. A., who has
been in his service for eighteen years, and
consequently no very youthful bride, took it
into her head to marry a shoemaker, who.