102 OLD SPORTING FRIENDS. 



of Mysore had been reluctant to sanction the expenditure required for the 

 attempt. The proposals originated entirely with me. I had been soliciting 

 permission to make a trial for the past eight months, and it was only 

 granted when the season for finding elephants in ground where it would be 

 practicable to catch them — June to December — was far advanced. How- 

 ever, when I did get permission, I commenced the work with the hearty 

 support of an officer of high influence in the province, a keen and experi- 

 enced sportsman, and who warmly assisted my scheme. The Amildar, or 

 head native official of the district, was an able and energetic person, and 

 obtained for me the willing co-operation of the people required for carrying- 

 out the works I decided upon. 



My first step at Chamraj -Nuggar was to send for my old sporting 

 friends, the Morlayites, whom I questioned about the number of elephants 

 in the jungles, their principal haunts and routes, and other particulars. 

 I had not met these men for more than two years, when we used to hunt 

 together ; and though they were not very clean, I could almost have hugged 

 them with pleasure at getting back to them and my old hunting-grounds ; 

 whilst, as I had always behaved well to them, they were delighted, and 

 prostrated themselves in a body, declaring I was their father and mother, 

 and that they had been as children bereft since I left them ! I put them 

 in good spirits by asking about such little grievances as Indian villagers 

 generally imagine they have, regarding their lands, taxes, and so forth, and 

 promised them that the Amildar would pay particular attention to anything 

 that they had to represent if they rendered effective assistance in elephant- 

 catching. 



Next day I moved camp to Morlay, and occupied the hours between 

 sunrise and sunset in tramping the jungles and examining places that 

 seemed likely to afford facilities for circumventing elephants. I knew the 

 whole neighbourhood well, so was able to decide upon a certain ford, marked 

 A on plan, on the Honhollay river, at which to make an attempt. The 

 river was here about twenty yards wide, but ordinarily with only a narrow 

 and shallow stream flowing over its clean gravelly bed. In the rainy months 

 heavy but short-lived floods sometimes rose twenty feet in a few hours. 

 Wild elephants crossing from its east to its west bank used this and two 

 other fords (the banks were not practicable except at these places), marked 

 X, X on plan. They also retreated by the same routes. When on the west 

 side of the river it was their custom to seek shelter in covers D or E, and 

 we calculated that by stopping the two fords (X, X) we could drive a herd 

 out of D or E across by ford A, which was indeed their favourite route. 



Upon these considerations I marked out a kheddah at A, on the east 



