HUNTING & SHOOTING IN CEYLON 



curved side. They came in handy as wedding presents. 

 The ears can be split, part way down, lined with cloth 

 or silk, and used as newspaper racks to hang on the wall. 

 The tails are usually stuffed and hung up, but you can 

 make bracelets out of the thick tail bristles. 



Elephant shooting is, without a doubt, exciting, and, 

 even in our forests, possesses a fair element of danger, 

 but nothing to compare with the dangerous open-country 

 shooting which usually has to be done in Africa open 

 country or almost impenetrable cane or reed brakes. It 

 will be a pity from a sentimental point of view to see 

 elephants wiped out, but I really think, out here at least, 

 they do about as much damage as they are intrinsically 

 worth. They are not much used for work in Ceylon, 

 being mainly " Temple ornaments." For an account of 

 an elephant kraal read Sir Emerson Tennent's fine descrip- 

 tion, or Mr. Modder's account of the great kraal in the 

 North- Western Province, a few years ago, when some- 

 thing like 90 elephants were enclosed. 



It is hardly necessary for me to refer to the well-worn 

 subject of the height of elephants. The usual height is 

 from 7 feet 6 inches to 8 feet 6 inches at the shoulder, 

 and any animal over 9 feet is a very large one in the face 

 of these figures the measurements given of some of my 

 own kills will seem a bit " tall," but they were all wila 

 elephants and of most unusual size. I have met elephants 

 in many other parts of Ceylon and seen their tracks, but 

 none to compare for a moment with the Tamankaduwa 

 wila breed, the only ones to approach them in size being 

 possibly a few odd ones of the Southern Province or 

 Uva Province. 



Of " pukka" tuskers, I had never seen one in all my 

 wanderings, though I must have seen, one way or another, 



no 



