ELEPHANT SHOOTING 



tree. They then at once said, " It's the rogue." I asked 

 them, " Can we get there before it's too dark ? " to which 

 they replied, " Yes, if we run all the way." So off we went, 

 I with a 12-bore rifle, and a " pannikan " following with my 

 4~bore. Then a strange thing happened. There were two 

 elephants feeding together, and the rogue (who was said to 

 be deaf) some distance away. Apparently the two either 

 winded or heard us, and they at once ran up to the rogue, 

 seemed to give him a mild shove with their heads, and 

 then ofF they went. Not so the rogue, however ; he came 

 straight on in our direction, and we waited for him in the 

 small bushes which surrounded the tank. To divert his 

 attention I sent my third man up wind, with instructions 

 to get up a solitary tree, which was handy, so that the 

 elephant should get his wind, and give me a better chance 

 of a shot, but he took no notice of the man and came 

 on, scenting up our trail with his ears well forward, and 

 evidently in a vile temper. 



As he came round the bush behind which I was stand- 

 ing he saw me a few feet away, and made a rush as I fired 

 with the 4-bore. As this rifle burns 16 drachms of black 

 powder it may be imagined what the smoke was like, and 

 I could not see if he was down. I jumped back, and my 

 1 2 -bore was put into my hand at once. It was not needed, 

 however, as on the smoke clearing there he was, stone dead, 

 and a good thing for us all, I fancy, as it was nearly dark 

 by this time and the Kayan bush was almost impassable. 

 We cut off his tail and had to shout for a lantern to get 

 back to camp, very tired but very pleased. 



Next morning I started out before six o'clock, and 

 though the natives could have had no other means of know- 

 ing the elephant had been shot beyond hearing the report 

 of my big gun, we found a very large crowd of people from 



