CHAPTER IX 



ELEPHANT SHOOTING 

 BY J. J. ROBINSON 



I HAVE accepted with very great reluctance the Editor's 

 kind invitation to contribute some of my own elephant 

 shooting experiences, for the reason that the rifle is much 

 handier to me than the pen. 



It is, however, a real joy to recall to memory some 

 of my old battles in the forests and jungles of Uva ; but 

 the task of committing them to paper is, to me, not an 

 easy one, and I cannot hope to convey thereby to my 

 readers more than a faint idea of my own pleasure and 

 enthusiasm in the chase. 



Ask any man in Ceylon who has done a bit of elephant 

 shooting if he considers our " monarch of the forest " a 

 dangerous animal to tackle, and he will probably say " No 

 very tame sport " ; but for all that there is a large element 

 of danger in it, dependent in particular on the nature of 

 the beast and of the country in which it is met with. In 

 ordinary cases the animal is located by trackers, the sports- 

 man is led up to it, and usually gets time for a deliberate 

 shot which, with a little care, should prove fatal ; or, in 

 in the case of a herd, the animals are in full flight before 

 the smoke of the first shot has cleared away. 



I can only call to mind two occasions on which I was 

 charged by unwounded elephants once by a celebrated 

 old rogue at Butala, and once by a rogue at Nilgala. The 

 latter had been hunted by several sportsmen, and when I 



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