MY LAST TUSKER IN UPPER BURMA 331 



signs of the animal having passed early that morning. The 

 difficulties sometimes were great, but I need not go into 

 details, as they have already been enumerated elsewhere, how 

 we worried around and made casts when the animal had 

 stopped for a short time and fed round here and there in 

 circles, crossing and recrossing its tracks, or what trouble we 

 had to pick out his trail from amongst those of other ele- 

 phants which had recently been in the neighbourhood. Let it 

 suffice to say, that after travelling in this manner from 5 a.m. 

 till about 2 p.m., we eventually heard sounds of breaking 

 bamboos on a neighbouring hill-side some 300 yards off, 

 which plainly indicated that we had at last come up with 

 the animal and that it was feeding. 



It is much easier to approach an animal when it is feeding 

 than when it is resting or even on the move, as in the two 

 latter cases it seems to be more on the alert, whereas the 

 noise made by an animal feeding naturally drowns to 

 a certain extent all other sounds in its immediate vicinity, 

 such as the breaking of twigs, the rustling of leaves and 

 branches when the sportsman brushes against them, and 

 so on. 



I had only my 12-bore rifle with me on this occasion, my 

 8-bore rifle and '303 having been sold, as I was about to 

 proceed to England on long leave. 



I soon caught sight of the elephant standing broadside on, 

 feeding away quite unconcernedly on bamboo leaves, oblivious 

 to all danger. He was standing with his back a little above 

 the top of a ridge on the edge of a steep ravine, a most 

 advantageous position for a quiet approach, although I must 

 say I felt an occasional qualm pass through me, as there was 

 not a single substantial tree behind which I could retreat in 

 case of need. I moved forward very cautiously to within 

 about fifteen paces, when a brute of a monkey, the common 

 brown species, jumped from one branch to another on a tree 

 overhead and knocked down a rotten branch, which fell with 

 a loud crash almost on top of the elephant, which, swinging 

 quickly round, faced me. I immediately stopped dead, and, 

 thinking I was discovered, was preparing to raise my rifle 

 slowly to my shoulder, when he turned round and began 



