WHOSE ELEPHANT WAS IT? 301 



happened ; however, I think I was quite entitled to one tusk, 

 if not both. D's first two shpts, I afterwards ascertained from 

 the Burman hunter who was with him at the time (a villager of 

 Chaukmaw, near Sagadaung, Momeik State, Ruby Mines 

 district), had been fired at the head of another elephant 

 altogether, which had gone clean away, practically not having 

 been hit in a vulnerable spot, or even floored. It was while 

 following up the tracks of this elephant, according to the 

 account afterwards given me by D's tracker, that they came 

 upon the one I had wounded standing stock-still under some 

 trees looking quite disabled ; it was then an easy matter for D, 

 who mistook it, according to the Burman's story, for the one 

 he had first fired at, and whose tracks he believed he was still 

 following, to pump lead into it, which he did with a vengeance, 

 firing no less than ten shots, the animal being apparently too 

 done up to either charge or put on enough speed to escape. 

 The surrounding country in the neighbourhood was very hilly 

 and rocky, and a wounded elephant would therefore find 

 escape, having a lot of climbing to do, well-nigh impossible. 

 My second shot I afterwards found proved, on examination, 

 to have done all the damage, having entered the body after 

 passing through the neck. 



There is no sport which entails a greater amount of endur- 

 ance and hard walking than elephant hunting, and the sports- 

 man has to be in fairly good condition if he wishes to indulge 

 in this particular branch of big-game shooting with any 

 degree of success. I have repeatedly marched on for miles 

 on the seemingly fresh tracks of a solitary bull elephant, 

 sometimes in despair of ever coming up with the owner, so 

 steadily and over such an immense stretch of country do 

 these animals wander ; at other times after walking for many 

 a weary mile I have come on the animal, only to find that he 

 has winded me, and made off. In cases of this sort, should 

 it be after mid-day, it is well-nigh hopeless to take on the 

 tracks of the elephant again that day, as the animal, if it be 

 a large tusker which has often been disturbed in this manner 

 will travel for miles without stopping once. 



One day in July, in the rainy season, while cantering along 

 the road between the villages of Chaukmaw and Pinkan, I 



