THE TIGER 305 



Some elephants which are in other respects perfect 

 shikaris will retain some ineradicable peculiarity which 

 may almost unfit them for use in hunting. For some 

 time I had a female who would stand anything in the 

 way of animals (I once had her charged close up by a 

 whole family of bears — a terrible trial for any elephant), 

 but who bolted invariably in the utmost panic from the 

 loud shout of a human voice. On one such occasion she 

 carried a cargo of native clerks into the middle of a deep 

 river, and left them to swim for their lives. On another, 

 I thought I should die of laughing, though her prank 

 nearly ended in the death of an unhappy Gond. He 

 had been taken out with her by the attendant whose 

 business it is to cut branches of trees for fodder, and 

 was left on her back to pack the load, while the other 

 went up the tree to cut down branches. In the mean- 

 time a loud shout in the neighbourhood sent her off at 

 full speed for camp, and, a deep weedy tank lying in 

 the way, she marched right into it, and began to surge 

 up and down in the water, her unwilling rider piteously 

 screaming at every plunge. He was half drowned and 

 nearly finished with fright before we could release him 

 by sending in two other elephants with their drivers, 

 who drove her with their spears into a corner and 

 secured her. 



The keeping of an elephant is very costly, coming 

 in Central India to about £80 or £90 a year. The 

 Government has, however, great numbers of elephants, 

 many of them trained shikaris ; and there is seldom 

 much difficulty in obtaining the use of one for a few 

 weeks. They may also be frequently borrowed from 

 wealthy natives ; but in that case will seldom be found 

 to possess the hard condition necessary for severe work 

 in the hot season. In the later years of our forest work 



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