ELEPHANTS 



approach the left broadside, whilst I walked up to his full front 

 to be ready for him if Tom failed to kill. I, having only 

 about 20 yards to go, soon got into position and found myself 

 in full view of the elephant barely i o yards away. Looking 

 to my right I saw Tom some 20 yards away, so gave him a 

 nod, whereupon he put up the 8-bore, fired, and with a 

 slight gasp the elephant sank on its knees stone dead. I 

 ran up, however, and put a " Paradox " ball into its ear, 

 and Tom, coming up, seeing its perfectly natural position, 

 exactly that of an elephant rising from a kneeling posture, 

 and seeing the head gently nodding, exclaimed, " By Jove ! 

 it is not dead yet," letting fly into its head again with 

 the 8-bore. The head still nodded, and Tom, being yet in- 

 credulous, fired again, but it was as dead as a stone to 

 the first shot. For a long time our men dared not approach, 

 but at last they did, and we cut off the tail and measured 

 the feet, just over 50 inches, after which we returned to the 

 village. There was tremendous excitement on our arrival, 

 and every man, woman, and child capable of walking set 

 off at once to see the dead elephant as it was not more 

 than a mile away, our coolies going as well to cut off 

 the feet, and having to spend half the night clearing them 

 out. We made our way home next day well enough 

 pleased. 



As a final hint about elephant shooting in Ceylon, if 

 your Singhalese trackers go steadily along the track and 

 inform you that the jungle ahead is mookalahna, which 

 means " big forest " (Tamil, sholey kahdoo\ you are all 

 right and the shot will probably be an easy one. If they 

 go a little more cautiously and inform you that the jungle 

 is landa (Tamil, siroo kahdod), it means that there is more 

 undergrowth and few or no big trees, so that an approach 

 needs care, and more so the shot, as it will not be so easy to 



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