HUNTING & SHOOTING IN CEYLON 



made our way round the north end of the great wila near 

 the village, skirted a smaller swamp, in the middle of 

 which was feeding a huge boar whom we left in peace, 

 and entered big gloomy forest. The local man knew the 

 elephant's usual haunts, and after a mile or two we came 

 on its fresh track, showing it to be a very large elephant, 

 as are most of these swamp frequenters. We followed the 

 track, Kanavathie, the " Nooser," leading, and presently 

 heard the animal some distance ahead of us more than 

 that, we heard it lie down and start snoring away like an 

 old bellows ! Just then a leopard roared loudly close to 

 our back-track, so I ran back a little to look for him 

 but without success. We then, after testing the wind, 

 approached the elephant and found he had entered an 

 extraordinarily dense little clump of thick creepers and 

 undergrowth, into which he had forced his way, turned 

 round, and lain down facing the entrance. We tip-toed 

 along the only side left available to us by the wind, peering 

 through the matted mass of twigs and branches, but could 

 not, get a single place for a shot, or make out any par- 

 ticular part of his massive bulk. Kanavathie and I then 

 did what I think was about the maddest thing we could 

 have done we deliberately crawled into the thicket by 

 the way the elephant himself had forced his way in, and 

 presently found ourselves squatting down, unable to stand 

 upright, within ten feet of the massive head of the animal. 

 He was not asleep in spite of his snores, for I could see 

 one wicked little eye blinking at us with surprise, and he 

 almost immediately began to raise his head from the 

 ground. I waited until it got into a favourable position 

 and fired, but, to my dismay, he continued to rise, so, the 

 moment he got to his feet I fired my second barrel, where- 

 upon, to our great relief, he turned round and crashed 



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