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230 BIG GAME SHOOTING \ 



If a herd is attacked it stampedes, and if hard pressed the | 

 females with calves will charge. 



When a herd stampedes in cover, as it is impossible to tell 

 the direction it will take, the best course the sportsman can 

 adopt is to stand still against a tree or a bamboo clump, and 

 not attempt to run. A tree eight inches in diameter is said to 

 be about the largest that an elephant can overthrow. If cir- 

 cumstances ever occur to make a run unavoidable, the flight 

 should always be down hill and the steepest places at hand 

 chosen, as elephants fear to trust themselves on a rapid descent 

 at any great pace ; up hill or on the level a man would be 

 speedily overtaken on rough ground. 



When a herd makes off it goes at a great pace for a short 

 distance and then settles into a fast walk, which is often kept 

 up for ten or fifteen miles if there is a wounded elephant r 

 and no young calves with it. The sportsman should pursue at > j 

 once, as an ordinary runner can generally keep near for two ^j 

 or three hundred yards. '* 



When elephants are close at hand, standing in indecision, -X 

 no one should shout to turn them, as a charge from one or more ' 

 of them is almost sure to be the result. A friend of the , 

 writer's told him that once when stalking an elephant he could 

 not get a fair shot at his head, so he whistled to make him turn ; 

 the elephant simply swung round and charged, but a shot in* 

 the head, though it did not floor, turned him. 



The impression of the tusks in soft soil gives a good idea i| 

 of their size. A groove that will admit five fingers means that j 

 the tusks will probably weigh over 60 lbs. the pair. Twice 1 

 round the forefoot gives the height of the elephant at the \ 

 shoulder. j 



In shooting single elephants, after the first rush of a hundred | 

 yards or so all noise often ceases, as the elephant breaks into a I; 

 walk, and a novice would suppose that he had stopped when '{ 

 in reality he is rapidly retreating. J, 



In following wounded elephants it is a good plan to send ,1 

 a couple of trackers ahead while the sportsman and his gun- ;j 



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