HUNTING & SHOOTING IN CEYLON 



into its head, though it was dead enough, and the ground 

 around was swimming in blood in five minutes. This 

 is the elephant, the measurements of which are referred 

 to in page 92, the largest I ever killed in Ceylon, and 

 there is no doubt it was one of the giants of the breed of 

 large elephants which frequent the wilas of Tamankaduwa. 

 We cut off the tail and one ear and returned to camp, it 

 being then too late to send for the feet that day, but they 

 were brought in next morning, each fore-foot being a very 

 full load for two men. Many months afterwards I had 

 the skull brought to my bungalow, where it now is, 

 and one of the illustrations shows it in comparison with 

 the skull of my first elephant, which had been considered 

 a fine skull at one time but looks a pigmy beside the 

 giant. This great skull measures exactly 3 feet 7 inches 

 in height when standing on the ground on the lower jaw 

 bone, and the animal must have been an old one, as it 

 had the four full-grown teeth only and none of the smaller 

 ones. The other skull only measures 3 feet same way. 

 The few incidents which I have related, out of my 

 elephant shooting experiences, will serve to show my 

 readers the kind of thing Ceylon elephant shooting is, 

 with some of its difficulties, dangers, and uncertainties, 

 but I do not profess to be much of an elephant shot 

 and have not done anything in that branch of sport for 

 some years. The drawback to elephant shooting is, to 

 my mind, that you have to let other animals alone for 

 fear of disturbing your game, but as a matter of fact 

 you see little or no other game in elephant country, and 

 so do not get a chance at it unless you move to fresh 

 country. It would be a most unusual thing, if not an 

 impossible occurrence, to find an elephant in Ceylon which 

 has not been fired at, and more than once. In all the 



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