HUNTING & SHOOTING IN CEYLON 



the 8-bore speak again, and the elephant instantly turned 

 round, standing motionless, facing down the glade. I 

 heard Tom cursing quietly as he struggled with the car- 

 tridges, so ran out into the glade again, and, standing about 

 15 yards away in front of the elephant, opened on it with 

 the .303, aiming carefully at the fatal "bump." I fired 

 five shots quite deliberately, but the only effect was to cause 

 the animal to retreat one step backwards at each discharge. 

 Finally it turned and went quietly into the forest, Tom 

 after it. I ran to our two trackers and changed the .303 

 for an old .577 with Snider cartridges, running back as soon 

 as I got it, but in the meantime I heard Tom fire twice, 

 and, meeting him directly afterwards, he said he thought 

 he had killed the elephant as it was down. I ran along 

 and found it dead on its knees, but gave it two more 

 shots to make certain. We did not attempt to measure 

 the height of this animal, but the feet measured only 

 49^ inches, so it was not a large one. We got back to 

 camp pretty tired, getting into the middle of a small herd 

 of elephants on the way, at dusk, and enjoying a very 

 interesting sight of them. 



Another experience we had together was rather out of 

 the common. Our local Government Agent had written 

 to both Tom and myself asking us to go and have a shot 

 at an elephant reported to be doing damage in Galboda 

 village, so we arranged to go off together. Galboda is only 

 about 20 miles from Matale, so I bicycled to Kaikawela, 5 

 miles on the Matale-Rattota road, where I met Tom as the 

 bridle path to his estate turned off from there. We had 

 sent coolies and things on the day before, and from 

 Kaikawela I walked and Tom rode by the old Taman- 

 kaduwa tavalam track, a very picturesque route along 

 the Kaluganga, to Ambane, on the Ambanganga, and thence 



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