ELEPHANTS 



his way through the thicket at that side, for had he come 

 forward we were absolutely unable to escape and must 

 have been trampled to pulp. I can only suppose he was 

 too astonished and dazed to attack us, and I can assure 

 you I was so taken aback at the failure of my shot to kill 

 at such close quarters that I thought the time had come to 

 " hand in my check." Kanavathie gave his opinion that it 

 was no use following the elephant, but we did track it for 

 about 2 miles, and as a matter of fact unless an elephant is 

 very badly wounded it is of little use following it nowadays, 

 as it runs a tremendous distance before it stops. If the 

 country was open a follow-up might be made, but through 

 our dense jungles you can only progress at a very slow 

 pace, whilst the elephant can travel through it faster than 

 you could run even in the open. 



The next day we travelled to Kuda-ulpota, a tiny 

 hamlet of about three houses, under the south-western 

 precipice of Gunner's Quoin, one of the inhabitants having 

 been killed by an elephant a few weeks previously. 



The unfortunate man was on his way to a little paddy 

 field near the village, and, with a small son, who was 

 walking in front of him, met the elephant face to face 

 just as they emerged from a small belt of scrub. The 

 poor fellow caught up his youngster in his arms, and at 

 the same moment the elephant, probably as much in fear 

 and surprise as anything else, struck the man with his 

 trunk, killing him on the spot, and ran right over him, 

 one nail of the foot slightly gashing the boy's forehead, 

 he being otherwise unhurt. The animal was described 

 to me as having a pair of small broken tusks and a scar 

 in the shape of a longitudinal slit in his tail, and was said 

 to frequent Bandia Wila, a large swamp about 4 miles 

 away. This information was given me by an extraordinary 



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