Shooting Elephants off Elephants. 1 1 1 



fully three hundred or more. I wounded five or six to 

 death, as we recovered their bodies afterwards, but I 

 only bagged one at the time and that was a three - 

 parts grown male. A female had been charging me 

 over and over again, my elephants were demoralized 

 from the shrieks and cries of the wild ones, who 

 wounded to death and unable to fight or run away, 

 still huddled together, and groaned and trumpeted 

 most awfully. On her last charge as I fired a male ran 

 in between us and received the ball in the hip joint and 

 fell partially paralysed, yet the plucky brute came at 

 me on his knees, and when quite close, he lifted up his 

 head to take a look at me. I seized the favourable 

 moment and put a ball into his brain. I never fired 

 at an elephant off an elephant again, though I have 

 often been close to them. It is disgustingly cruel to 

 do so, as the brain cannot be reached when firing 

 off a pad or howdah. I have something to say 

 of running down elephants, catching them in pitfalls 

 and in keddahs, as I have had experience of all 

 three modes. The first is as exciting and far more 

 dangerous than even pig- sticking. 



Noosing and Running Down Elephants. I was 

 under the impression nothing could exceed in excite- 

 ment hog-hunting, but I am not sure that the above 

 is not almost as much so and far more dangerous, 

 whilst as far as bodily fatigue goes, noosing elephants 

 beats anything I have ever tried. I only went out 

 twice, and after each hunt I could barely move a limb 

 for a week. As for my arms, they had been wrenched 

 almost out of their sockets, by holding on and being 

 tossed about, sometimes on one side, sometimes on the 



