A LARGE TUSKER'S TRACKS. 223 



and applied myself to fishing and deer-shooting till their return. On the 

 second evening two of them returned to say that they had found the single 

 elephant's tracks ; that he was an immense beast, as shown by his footprints ; 

 and that the other two Kurrabas were following him with several Kurrabas 

 of the locality. It is always necessary for trackers to see an elephant if 

 trophies are the sportsman's object, as the animal may turn out to be a 

 muckna, or tuskless male. 



Next day, not expecting news till evening, I was wandering in the 

 forest, accompanied by three or four Kurrabas, when we came on the fresh 

 trail of an elephant. It had evidently been made during the night, but by 

 what elephant we could not conjecture. There was no single elephant but 

 the muckna left in the Kakankote jungles now that the rogue was shot, and 

 it was incredible that the former could have remained about the place after 

 the treatment he had received so lately. Whilst we were discussing the 

 matter in low whispers, beyond which the voice should never be raised in 

 the jungles — there is nothing to gain and everything to lose by audible 

 talking — we heard a light rustling sound approaching. In an instant we 

 were all under cover of some close young bamboo -coppice, as it was as 

 likely to be the elephant as anything else, when who should appear but 

 our party of Kurrabas from the other side of the river, following the trail 

 eagerly, all with their eyes upon the ground, and dripping from crossing 

 the river. As they came close to where we were hidden I made a sudden 

 movement among the bamboos. If a nod is as good as a wink to a blind 

 horse, a rustle is as effective as any greater demonstration to a Kurraba, 

 and there was an instantaneous, though quiet, scatter amongst them. A 

 whistle brought them together, when they said that this was the elephant 

 from the Baigoor forest ; that they had followed him for the two preceding 

 days without seeing him, as he was restless and kept constantly on the 

 move ; that he had crossed the river during the night ; and they added the 

 gratifying intelligence that he had very large tusks, the prints of which 

 they had seen where he had lain down in soft soil. They had also brought 

 me the diameter of his footprint (the fore-foot) on a slip of bamboo, which, 

 on applying to a steel tape which I always carry in my pocket for measur- 

 ing game, I found to be exactly eighteen inches. As twice the circum- 

 ference of an elephant's fore-foot is his height at the shoulder, this gave 

 nine feet five inches, which is very tall even for a male elephant; and when 

 I shot him I found he was nine feet seven inches. Sometimes the foot 

 measurement is an inch or two out, but very rarely, and the difference on 

 this occasion probably arose from mis-measurement of the footprint. 



The Kurrabas were all very keen in the pursuit, and I encouraged them 



