19G ELEPHANTS IN FLIGHT. 



Elephants arc poor sighted, and so intent on making off when thoroughly 

 startled, that I have been almost brushed against without being discovered. 

 The rapidly advancing line of huge heads and cocked ears, bobbing spasmod- 

 ically up and down as the elephants come rushing on, levelling everything 

 before them, is a trying sight at first, requiring some nerve, and the reflection 

 that they are escaping, not charging, to stand. If circumstances ever occur 

 to make a run unavoidable, the pursued sportsman should always take 

 down-hill, and choose the steepest places at hand, as elephants fear to trust 

 themselves on a rapid descent at any great pace ; up-hill, or on the level, a 

 man would be immediately overtaken in rough ground. 



When a shot is fired at a herd unaccustomed to firearms, the whole fre- 

 quently mass together and stand huddled in a heap, shrinking at each shot 

 till the smoke and smell alarm them. There is no doubt that, in such cases, 

 they believe the noise to be thunder close at hand ; the firing of heavy 

 charges may easily be mistaken for the almost simultaneous flash and crash 

 often heard in storms during the early rains. It is undoubtedly from the 

 same belief that tigers not unfrequently return to eat at a carcass shortly 

 after a shot has been fired at them by the ambushed native shikarie. Un- 

 less they believed the noise to be something else than firearms, it is evident 

 they would not come back again. 



When a herd of elephants makes off, they go at a great pace for a short 

 distance, but do not maintain it long before they settle into a fast walk, 

 which they often keep up for ten or fifteen miles, if they have a wounded 

 elephant and no young calves amongst them. The sportsman should run 

 after them at once, as an ordinary runner can generally keep near them for 

 two or three hundred yards, if the ground be fair. 



When elephants are close at hand, standing in indecision, no one should 

 shout to turn them. A charge by one or more of them is almost sure to be 

 made if they are suddenly startled in this particular manner. I have seen, 

 and myself experienced, several instances of the danger of this. In Chittagong, 

 whilst driving elephants into a stockade on one occasion, they approached 

 the guiding-line of beaters too closely, when a man who was behind a small 

 bush shouted at them within thirty yards. A female at once charged him ; 

 the man fell, and with the pressure of her foot on his chest she split him 

 open, killing him on the spot. This elephant had a very young calf, from 

 solicitude for which she became a perfect fury. I was lame at the time 

 from the effect of a pummelling I had had a few days previously from a 

 wild elephant, so was riding a tame one during the beat. The beaters on 

 foot could not approach the elephants for fear of this particular female, 

 so I rode towards her, when she charged my elephant, I fired my express 



