

CHAPTER XII. 

 THE ELEPHANT (Mephas Indies). 



Expedition to Thaudi Scarcity of water Cicely Expedition 

 to Perrabyoo Our hut wrecked by elephants We get a 

 facer Flight of the herd Carders fear of elephants 

 Aversion to tracking Staunch with tiger Track up tiger 

 The Javalee tuskers Two exciting adventures Elephant 

 tracking Solitary males Their habits Strike trail of 

 Atlay's mendacity Skirmish with a sow Gun carrier bolts 

 Advance to attack Atlay bolts The encounter Get 

 front shot Tusker decamps Is found dead Tribal feud 

 Murrain Pitfalls Kheddah elephants Clothes for 

 elephant shooting The foot shot Lines of retreat to be 

 selected To harden bullets Excitement of elephant shoot- 

 ing The Hassanore tusker Primary attack fails Is 

 followed up and shot. 



THE Ceylon and Burmese elephants are stated to be 

 identical with the Indian animal, but, for some 

 unexplained cause, those of Ceylon are tuskless or nearly 

 so only one elephant out of three hundred being a " dant 

 wallah." * This peculiarity does not, however, extend to 

 the elephant of Burmah, the percentage of tuskers there 

 being the same as in India. 



When in Burmah in 1876 I had two trips after 

 elephants. The first was a solitary expedition to a village 

 named Thandi, on a delta of the Irrawaddy, south-east of 

 Eangoon, where a herd were in the habit of drinking at 

 a brackish pool, in the middle of a vast savannah of kine 



* Tusker. 



