ELEPHANT SHOOTING 



about to enter the jungle on the other side, I 

 dropped him by a lucky shot behind the ear, and 

 with two more bullets killed him. This elephant 

 appeared to be mildly insane. He had followed 

 the same tusker for hours, taking no notice of the 

 Colonel and the men on foot, though he must often 

 have got their wind. The men on cutting out his 

 tusks found seven or eight huge maggots in his 

 brain, and it is possible that the presence of these 

 irritating pests might account for this animal's 

 extraordinary behaviour. 



A FIGHTING TUSKER 



In 1882 Captain (now Colonel) W. (late of the 

 43rd Regiment) was in camp with me at Bandipur, 

 and one day a brother officer of his, who had done 

 very little shooting, and who had never seen a wild 

 elephant, joined us. Next morning W. and his 

 friend went out together and came upon the tracks 

 of a large, solitary male elephant. They followed 

 them up to the Mysore boundary, and then, finding 

 that the elephant had crossed into her Majesty's 

 territory, where W. had no permission to shoot him, 

 the latter sent one or two jungle men round to give 

 their wind to the animal in the hope of driving him 

 back into Mysore. This stratagem was successful, 

 and the elephant returned. W.'s battery consisted 

 of a double "577 express rifle, taking a charge of 

 6J drachms of powder, a double '450 express, and 

 an old, though accurate, single 6-bore muzzle- 



239 



