294 WILD SPORTS OF BURMA AND ASSAM 



quickly as the conditions would permit ; but what was my 

 surprise on gaining a piece of rising ground to see, not what 

 I had expected, gaur, but a solitary tusker elephant, standing 

 perfectly still, with its ears cocked forward, and trunk up in a 

 listening attitude. It was quite a rude shock to my nerves, as 

 this was my first elephant, and the distance between us only 

 about twenty paces, with no trees or bamboo clump behind 

 which to retreat, so I felt very much inclined to go back 

 quietly by the way I had come. Not wishing to show any 

 signs of funk in the presence of my hunters, I managed to 

 screw up courage to creep up a little nearer, my heart and 

 pulse all the time going like sledge-hammers. When within 

 about fifteen paces I decided to fire for the point of the 

 shoulder from a little behind, in order to rake the vitals and 

 penetrate the heart. Bang ! went the report from the heavy 

 8-bore, followed by an angry, shrill, half-suppressed scream 

 from the elephant, which, wheeling suddenly round as if on a 

 pivot, came straight for us. I hardly waited to see the result 

 of my shot, and, as you can imagine, did record time over and 

 through the bushes and fallen timber, hampered as I was 

 with the heavy 8-bore, which, however, at the time felt like a 

 feather. I very nearly came to grief all the same, as, while 

 jumping a fallen tree, a hidden stump tripped me up and 

 sent me sprawling frog-fashion, rifle and all, on the other side. 

 Moung Hpe, one of my hunters, was fortunately equal to the 

 occasion, as, running up, he at close quarters effectually stopped 

 the charge, by letting the animal have the contents of both 

 barrels of my double-twelve Lang smooth-bore, burning 

 4-i- drams of powder. My rifle and I were fortunately 

 none the worse for the fall, so hastily jamming in another 

 cartridge I ran round to where the elephant was standing 

 in rather an undecided manner, and at a distance of about 

 twenty-five paces succeeded in getting in a right and left 

 behind the shoulder. This seemed to have the desired 

 effect of disabling him, as after first staggering from side to 

 side in the vain endeavour to ascend a slight incline, he 

 lurched heavily to one side against a bamboo clump and then 

 collapsed stone dead in a kneeling position. My last two 

 shots I afterwards found had, after raking his lungs and 



