272 The Rifle and Hound in Ceylon. 



Dec. i. The scouts were sent out at daybreak. At 

 two o'clock p. M. they returned : they had found ele- 

 phants, but they were four miles from the tent, and two 

 men had been left to watch them. 



Upon questioning them as to their position, we dis- 

 covered that they were in total ignorance of the number 

 in the herd, as they had merely heard them roaring in 

 the distance. They could not approach nearer, as a 

 notoriously vicious rogue elephant was consorting with 

 the herd. This elephant was well known to the natives 

 from a peculiarity in having only one tusk, which was 

 about eighteen inches long. 



In November, and December elephant-shooting re- 

 quires more than ordinary caution at the Park, as the 

 rogue elephants, who are always bulls, are in the habit 

 of attending upon the herds. The danger lies in their 

 cunning. They are seldom seen in the herd itself, but 

 they are generally within a few hundred paces, and 

 just as the guns may have been discharged at the herd, 

 the rogue will, perhaps, appear in full charge from his 

 ambush. This is exquisitely dangerous, and is the 

 manner in which I was caught near this spot in 1850. 



Banda was very anxious that this rogue should be 

 killed befoi-e we attacked the herd, and he begged me 

 to give him a shoulder shot with the four-ounce rifle, 

 while Wortley and Palliser were to fire at his head. A 

 shot through the shoulder with the heavy rifle would be 

 certain death, although he might not drop immediately ; 

 but the object of the natives was simply to get him killed 

 on account of his mischievous habits. 



We therefore agreed to make our first attack upon 

 the rogue : if we should kill him on the spot, so much 

 the better ; if not, we knew that a foiir ounce ball 



