132 TWO YEAES iN THE JUNGLE. 



ities of endurance, perseverance, coolness, good judgment, and 

 knowledge of an animal's habits, which go to make up a successful 

 sportsman. There is a subtle charm about tracking up an elephant 

 which I am sure is never found in any other pursuit. The trail is 

 usually broad and plain, leading rapidly up hill and down, over 

 mountain and through valley, across marsh and river, through dense 

 forest and over grassy plain, mile after mile, growing fresher every 

 hour, but often taxing the skill of the trackers to the utmost. At 

 last the clear, resonant trumpet note, or the cracking and crashing 

 of green branches, or a tall gray back above the bushes, tells the 

 pigmy he is in the presence of the giant. It is a fair and square 

 encounter every time, and the hunter backs his skill and nerve with 

 his life against the great mountain of physical strength and impreg- 

 nability. The game does not skulk in the bushes and wait to be 

 driven out at random by a grand army of beaters ; nor can the 

 hunter climb into a tree-top and from thence shoot him with as 

 much safety as though he were at home in his little bed ; neither 

 can the elephant be killed at long range. The hunter must boldly 

 walk up in front of him to within twenty paces or less, fire away, 

 and take his chances. Wliile doing so he knows very well that if 

 any accident or miscalculation places him within the power of that 

 terrible trunk, those huge fore-feet or knees will immediately be 

 upon his chest crushing him, like a miserable reptile, out of all 

 human shape. Hunters frequently escape alive and recover from 

 the jaws and claws of the lion, tiger, leopard, and bear, but I never 

 yet heard of a man falling into the power of an infuriated wild ele- 

 phant and living to tell the story. 



Just before I began my elephant hunting, I came across the fol- 

 lowing encouraging (!) paragraph from the pen of Colonel Shak- 

 spere, a high authority on Indian sports : 



" That elephant shooting requires much practice is certain from 

 the fact that young hands at it, though very good shots, are rarely 

 successful. Indeed, that famous sportsman. Captain Garrow, who 

 probably at his death had killed more elephants than any man in 

 India, and if you count only tusk elephants, perhaps more than any 

 man who had ever shot, assured me that for the first two years he 

 did not bag even one. I have known other sportsmen, who turned 

 out very well afterward, to shoot at elephants for a couple of years, 

 knock them over, but never able to persuade them to remain." * 



♦ Wild Sports of India, p. 163. 



