ELEPHANT SHOOTING 



elephants had returned. Fringing the tea, was a 

 narrow belt of jungle and bamboo, and beyond it 

 lay low ground covered by a great sea of high reed 

 and grass at that season standing in water. I 

 went out again, and could hear the elephants in 

 the narrow belt, and, approaching the sound, sat 

 down behind a tea bush to await the appearance 

 of one of the animals. Before long the head of a 

 tusker emerged from the bamboo, and I fired at his 

 temple. A great crushing in the jungle ensued, 

 followed by a tremendous splashing, squelching, 

 and popping, as the elephants floundered through 

 the wet, muddy swamp full of high reeds and grass, 

 accompanied by the tusker, who was little, if any, 

 the worse for the scare which he had experienced. 



The next occasion upon which I fired at an 

 elephant was shortly after I had joined the Mysore 

 Forest Department. I had at the time never 

 bagged a single head of running game bigger than 

 a jackal. 



In January, 1882, I left Mysore with H., of the 

 Forest Department ; and upon the fifth day of our 

 trip I met with an adventure which nearly brought 

 my big game shooting days to an abrupt conclusion 

 ere they had well begun. 



H. and I had been encamped in tents in the 

 Metikuppa forest. The water supplies in the interior 

 of that forest had nearly all dried up, and our camp 

 was pitched beside a filthy pool, from the mud 

 beneath which, if a stick were thrust down into 

 it, bubbles of gas arose to the surface. Fortunately 

 H. had brought a cask of good water mounted 



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