HOW TO SHOOT ELEPHANTS 37 



both. Before this fruit or vegetable appears there will not be 

 an elephant within fifty miles of the locality; directly it 

 ripens, down come the lordly beasts and hover about till the 

 season is past or the succulent morsels devoured. 



To hunt these animals successfully on foot is very hard 

 work, and requires a man to be not only in good training, 

 sound of wind and limb, but also to be possessed of determin- 

 ation, undaunted pluck, a quick eye, and very sharp ears ; he 

 must also have learnt the art of walking over ground covered 

 with fallen timber and debris, and through dense jungles and 

 forests without emitting the slightest sound. 



Huge as are these beasts, none are easier to kill if the 

 hunter comes across one whilst on foot at sufficiently close 

 quarters, and if he knows the right spot to aim at and hit, 

 and the angle to fire. A knowledge of the two must be 

 combined; one without the other is useless. Although I have 

 lately read in Mr. Chandler's Through Jungle and Desert that 

 with the Mannlicher -256 rifle, his comrade Von Hohnel killed 

 elephants at 300 to 400 yards, I need not say such would be 

 impossible in India, because you would never see them at 

 such distances. The golden rule is to get as close as possible 

 the distance should not exceed 20 yards, better if it be 

 some ten paces closer. General Michael, the great elephant- 

 shot of Southern India, lays down certain rules for shooting 

 them in the Encyclopedia of Sport. They differ very slightly 

 from mine already published in Sport in Burma, and Fifty 

 Years' Reminiscences of India. 



\ 



GENERAL MICHAEL'S. MINE. 



I. "If the animal be directly i. The bump between the 

 facing you, with both eyes eyes, which should be fired at 

 visible, and standing on the from the front, low down and 

 same level as yourself, or a upward, 

 little above you, plant your 

 ball low in the rounded bump 

 which is so conspicuous on an 

 elephant's forehead just above 

 the trunk. At that spot there 

 is a convenient opening in the 



