This first mile cleared, they saw a large hole, opened through the underwood, which ended obliquely at the rivulet and followed its bank.

It was a passage made by elephants, and those animals, doubtless by hundreds, were in the habit of traversing this part of the forest.

Great holes, made by the feet of the enormous pachyderms, riddled a soil softened during the rainy season.

Its spongy nature also prepared it for those large imprints.
It soon appeared that this passage did not serve for those gigantic animals alone.

Human beings had more than once taken this route, but as flocks, brutally led to the slaughter-house, would have followed it.