248 APPENDIX 



In my time the hunter took his life in his 

 hand. The country was covered in great part 

 by thickest jungle, and was often impenetrable 

 to man save by the paths made by the elephants 

 themselves. All hunting, therefore, was neces- 

 sarily on foot; and there were no breech-loaders. 

 Comparative safety was only to be found by 

 stealthy approach to the closest of quarters, say 

 to within twenty yards or less. Then you tried 

 to kill your beast by a single well-directed shot 

 from a heavily charged and powerful weapon 

 in one of the fatal spots in the head which 

 reached the brain. Big as is the elephant's 

 head, the brain is relatively very small ; and 

 unless the bullet reached the brain it might as 

 well have been fired into the nearest tree. The 

 fatal spots are three; the frontal shot, that on 

 the temple between the eye and ear, and the 

 shot behind the ear, raking forward. Only one 

 of these could be at any one time available, 

 according to the position of the animal and the 

 man ; and in each case the spot to be reached, 

 to be fatal, is no larger than a saucer. Then, 

 too, the exact angle of fire had to be kept ; if 

 the animal stood higher, lower or on a level 

 with the gun, the angle of fire varied accordingly. 

 Add to all this the dense volume of smoke from 

 the heavy charges of the black powder of that 



