CO WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WAYS CHAP. 



shooting will clear out an extensive district, although the area may 

 comprise a variation of open prairie with a large amount of forest. 

 I have frequently observed, in the jwrtion of Ceylon known as the 

 Park country, the tracks of elephants in great numbers which have 

 evidently been considerable herds that have joined together in a 

 general retreat from ground which they considered 'insecure. In 

 that district I have arrived at the proper season, when the grass 

 after burning has grown to the height of about 2 feet, and it has 

 literally been alive with elephants. In a week my late brother 

 General Valentine Baker and myself shot thirty-two, and I sent a 

 messenger to invite a friend to join us, in the expectation of extra- 

 ordinary sport. Upon his arrival after five or six days, there was 

 not an elephant in the country, excepting two or three old single 

 bulls which always infested certain spots. 



The reports of so many heavy rifles, which of necessity were 

 fired every evening at dusk in the days of muzzle-loaders, for the 

 sake of cleaning, must have widely alanned the country, but in- 

 dependently of this special cause there can be no doubt that after 

 a few days' heavy shooting, the elephants will combine in some 

 mysterious manner and disappear from an extensive district. In 

 many ways these creatures are perplexing to the student of natural 

 history. It would occur to most people that in countries where 

 elephants abound we should frequently meet with those that are 

 sick, or so aged that they cannot accompany the herd. Although 

 for very many years I have hunted both in Asia and Africa I have 

 never seen a sick elephant in a wild state, neither have I ever come 

 across an example of imbecility through age. It is rarely we 

 discover a dead elephant that has not met with a violent death, 

 and only once in my life have I by accident found the remains of a 

 tusker with the large tusks intact. This animal had been killed in 

 a fight, as there were unmistakable signs of a fearful struggle, the 

 ground being trodden deeply in all directions. 



It is supposed by the natives that when an elephant is mortally 

 sick it conceals itself in the thickest and most secluded portion of 

 the jungle, to die in solitude. Most animals have the same instinct, 

 which induces them to seek the shelter of some spot remote from 

 all disturbance ; and should we find their remains, it will be near 

 water, where the thirst of disease has been assuaged at the last 

 moment. 



The ox tribe are subject to violent epidemics, and I have not 

 only found the bodies of buffaloes in great numl>ers upon occasions 

 during some malignant murrain, but they have been scattered 

 throughout the country in all directions, causing a frightful stench, 



