CHAPTER XI. 

 THE ELEPHANT (Mephas Indies). 



Distribution of Shooting prohibited in 1871 Damage caused 

 by Reward formerly offered for Elephant pits Rogue 

 elephants Dangers of elephant shooting Where to aim 

 Large bores desirable Steel tipped bullets Major Gordon 

 Gumming System inaugurated by Advantage of learn- 

 ing jungle dialects Start with Gumming to shoot elephants 

 Scene of operations Commencement of encounter One 

 tusker killed A stern chase A record shot Narrow 

 shave Death of second tusker Tusks disfigured Beat 

 for sambur Routed by cow elephant Return to Banga- 

 lore Baffled Sybarites How to scare a herd Woodcraft 

 Difference between ha,bits of elephants and bison. 



THE haunts of tbe wild elephant in Southern India 

 comprise the virgin forests of Coorg, Canara, the Wynaad, 

 Coimbatore, Mysore, and Travancore, and their hill ranges, 

 together with the fringes of lesser jungle which abut 011 

 the cultivated lowlands in those districts. They are, in 

 fact, identical with those inhabited by the bison. In the 

 forests near the Godavery the wild elephant is also found, 

 and when tiger shooting in those districts, news was occa- 

 sionally brought to camp of their presence in the vicinity. 

 Since the ukase issued by the Madras Government in 

 1871 against the killing of wild elephants, and the subse- 

 quent cessation of kheddah operations, these animals have 

 increased enormously in the forests of Southern India, and 

 the outcry of the ryots cultivating lands adjoining these 

 tracts has become louder in proportion to the enhanced 



