286 WILD SPORTS OF BURMA AND ASSAM 



distinct and deep impression of the two front toes of the 

 fore-feet in the soil, though a similar impression may some- 

 times be made, and has, within my own experience, been 

 made, by a huge "muckna" or " hine." I have personally 

 tracked up and shot several large solitary " mucknas," which 

 had done a great deal of damage to crops, and found that 

 in most cases there was always the huge circular imprint 

 with a perceptible impression of the toes, but the latter not 

 so well marked as in the case of a tusker. A solitary bull 

 should always be approached with the greatest caution, as 

 he is generally an old stager, who is on the alert for the 

 slightest sound, and has often been stalked and fired at by 

 Burman hunters. A solitary bull which has often been 

 fired at or disturbed by hunters generally rests during the 

 heat of the day in dense " kairig," tall elephant grass, quite 

 impenetrable to the sportsman, or in some thicket where he 

 is practically unapproachable. Sometimes, however, he is 

 found stretched out at full length on his side on some breezy 

 bamboo-wooded slope sound asleep, snoring away quite 

 unconcernedly. 



I remember once very well when out in camp shooting 

 with Captain Clements, then Chief Commissariat officer at 

 Bernard myo, how the latter suddenly came on a solitary 

 tusker elephant sound asleep and snoring loudly, and it 

 had eventually to be wakened by throwing little pieces of 

 sticks and stones at it, to be laid low again by a well-planted 

 shot from Clements, which took effect in the temple. The 

 circumstances connected with the bagging of this elephant 

 recall to my memory a sad accident, which resulted in the 

 death of a Karen military police naik of the Mogok battalion, 

 who was accidentally shot by me under rather peculiar 

 circumstances during a false alarm in camp one night over 

 a tiger. Mr. C. E. Daniel, D.C., who held the inquest, and 

 Captain Clements, who was on the spot when the accident 

 occurred, can corroborate my story, which to oe intelligible 

 must be related in detail. 



Clements and I were encamped in the jungle at the foot 

 of the Shwe-u-taung hills in a small natural clearing some 

 six miles from the village of Chaukmaw, on the banks of the 



