HUNTING & SHOOTING IN CEYLON 



rifle and fire, and he came down on his nose, but was up 

 and into the jungle before I could get my second barrel 

 into him. On getting on to the tracks we found plenty of 

 blood and some froth, which looked as if he had got it 

 through the lungs. He had pushed his way through the 

 undergrowth and we had to follow almost on all-fours, and 

 after about i oo yards of it the tracker refused to go ahead. 

 I accordingly took my rifle from him and crept along with 

 my gun cooly close at my heels. The track was easy to 

 see, but the going was very bad. At one place it turned 

 abruptly to the left, and as we were turning on his tracks 

 I caught sight of the feet of an elephant, quite close to me, 

 and on looking up saw his trunk extended and withdrawn, 

 as if he were feeding on the leaves, &c. I could not make 

 out his head at all, but pointed out the feet to my cooly, 

 who nodded excitedly. Raising my rifle I tried to run the 

 sight back from his trunk to where the brain should be, 

 when we heard a deep sort of moan about 50 yards from us. 

 I at once decided to go on and finish the " buff," and come 

 back and tackle the elephant. We crept along the track, 

 and found the "buff" standing tail on to us and looking 

 very sick. I was just trying to get the angle behind the 

 shoulder when he spun round and charged, and I killed 

 him literally at my feet with a lucky shot between the eyes. 

 The tracker who had followed us began to talk, but I 

 checked him and told him about the elephant. He said 

 he had not seen it, but was willing to track it up if neces- 

 sary. We accordingly went back on our tracks to the 

 spot where we had seen the elephant, but there were no 

 signs of it, and though we cast round there were no tracks, 

 and I came to the conclusion that it must have been a most 

 extraordinary optical delusion, and, strange to say, that, 

 kneeling in the same spot, try as I would, I could not dis- 



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