32G 



THE ELEPHAXT. 



[Part VIII. 



Contrasted with this, one reads with a shudder the 

 sickening details of the African huntsmen approaching 

 behind the retiring animal, and of the torture inflicted by 

 the shower of bullets which tear up its flesh and lacerate 

 its flank and shoulders.^ 



The shooting of elephants in Ceylon has been de- 

 scribed with tiresome iteration in the successive journals 

 of sporting gentlemen, but one who turns to their pages 

 for traits of the animal and his instincts is disappointed 

 to find little beyond graphic sketches of the daring and 



certainty ' ■wliieli keeps a man on the 

 qni vive till be sees the elephant 

 down." — From a paper on J^Icphant 

 Shoot in f/ in Cei/lon, by Major 

 Macueadt, late Military Secretary 

 at Colombo. 



^ In Mr. GoEDOisr Cummixg's ac- 

 count of a Hunter s Life in South 

 Africa, there is a narrative of his 

 pursuit of a woimded elephant which 

 he had lamed by lodging a ball in its 

 shoulder-blade. It limped slowly 

 towards a tree, against which it 

 leaned itself m helpless agony, whilst 

 its pursuer seated himself in front of 

 it, in safety, to boil his coffee, and 

 observe its sufferings. The story is 

 continued as follows : — " Having ad- 

 mired him for a considerable time, 

 / resolved to make exjjcritnents on 

 vulnerable 2^oi>ds ; and approaching 

 very near, I fired several bullets at 

 different parts of his enormous 

 skidl. He only acknowledged the 

 shots by a salaam-like movement of 

 his trunk, with the point of which 

 he gently touched the woimds with 

 a sti-iking and peculiar action. Sur- 

 prised and shocked at finding that I 

 was only prolonging the sufferings 

 of the noble beast, which bore its 

 trials witli such dignified composure, 

 I resolved to finish the proceeding 

 with all possible despatcli, and ac- 

 cordingly opened fire upon him from 

 the left side, aiming at the shoidder. 

 I first fired sir shots with the two- 

 gl'oo^'ed rifle, Avhich must have event- 

 ually proved mortal. After which I 

 fired six sliots at the same part with 

 the Dutch si.x-poimder. Lart/c tears 



note trickled from his eyes, which he 

 sloioly shut and opened, his colossal 

 frame shivered conruhively, and fall- 

 ing on his side, he expired.^' (Vol. 

 ii. p. 10.) 



In another place after detailing 

 the manner in which he assailed a 

 poor animal — he says, " I was loading 

 and firing as fast as coiUd be, some- 

 times at the head, sometimes behind 

 the shoidder, imtil my elephant's fore- 

 quarter was a mass of gore ; not- 

 withstanding which he continued to 

 hold on, leaving the grass and branches 

 of the forest scarlet in his wake. * 

 * Having fired thirty-Jive rounds 

 with my two-grooved rifle, I opened 

 upon him with the Dutch six- 

 poimder, and when forty bullets had 

 perforated his hide, he began, for 

 the first time, to evince signs of 

 a dilapidated constitution." The 

 ■ disgusting description is closed thus : 

 " Throughout the charge he repeated- 

 ly cooled his person with large quan- 

 tities of water, which he ejected from 

 his ti'unk over his sides and back, 

 and just as the pangs of death came 

 over him, he stood ti'embling vio- 

 lently beside a thorn tree, and kept 

 pouring water into liis Ijloody mouth 

 until he died, when he pitched heavily 

 ftn'ward •nith the whole weight of 

 his fore-quarters resting on tho 

 points of his tusks. The strain was 

 fair, and the tusks did not yield ; 

 but the portion of his head in which 

 the tusks were embedded, extending 

 a long way above the eye, jdelded 

 and burst vrith a muffled crash," — 

 {lb., vol. ii. p. 4, 5.) 



