ri 



CHAPTER III. 



ELEPHANT SHOOTING. 



As the shooting of an elephant, wlialever endurance 

 and adroitness the sport may disjjlay in other respects, 

 requires the smallest possible skill as a marksman, the 

 numbers which are annually slain in this way may be 

 regarded less as a test of the expertness of the sportsman, 

 than as evidence of the multitudes of elephants abound- 

 ing in those parts of Ceylon to which they resort. One 

 officer. Major Rogers, killed upwards of 1,400 ; another. 

 Captain Gallwey, has the credit of slaying more than 

 half that number ; Major Skinner, the Commissioner of 

 Roads, almost as many; and less persevering aspirants 

 follow at humbler distances. ^ 



' To persons like myself, who are a.ssura.r\ce that " a/i real sporismen arc 



not addicted to what is called " sport," te7ider-heartcd men, who shun crztelty 



the statement of these wholesale slaugh- to nn animal, and are easily moved 



ters is calculated to excite surprise and by a tale of distress;" and that al- 



curiosity as to the nature of a passion though man is naturally bloodthirsty, 



that impels men to self-exposure and and a beast of prey by instinct, yet 



privation, in a pursuit which presents that the true sportsman is distinguished 



nothing but the monotonous recurrence from the rest of the human race by 



of scenes of blood and suffering. Sir S. his "love 0/ nature and of noble sce- 



Baker, who hSs recently published, nery." In support of this pretension 



under the title of " The Rifle and the to a gentler nature than the rest of 



Hound in Ceylon" an account of his mankind, the author proceeds to attest 



exploits in the forest, gives us the his own abhorrence of cruelty by nar- 



