4 BIG-GAME SHOOTING IN UPPER BURMA 



am correct in saying that the majority of Indian 

 elephants with tusks weighing over 60 lbs. the 

 pair will be found to exceed 9 ft. in height. At 

 the time of shooting this elephant, a cow stood 

 alongside, the trunks of the two animals being 

 practically level. The tusker towered so above 

 his companion — a full-grown female — that I 

 was able to fire over her head at the ear of 

 the bull, a shot which would have been quite 

 impossible if the tusker had not stood a good 

 two feet higher than the cow. Both elephants 

 were on the same level, quietly dozing ; — a rude 

 awakener for the poor old elephant ; but man, 

 when he sets out to slay, is a ruthless being. 



An account of the hunt which ended in the 

 death of this elephant may be worth giving. 

 During October 1907 I was out in the Lower 

 Chindwin district trying to locate the where- 

 abouts of a big herd of elephants, which for 

 some days had been doing damage to cultiva- 

 tion. Three days were spent in fruitless journeys 

 from village to village in the area in which the 

 herd had committed depredations, until I began 

 to think that the elephants had left the district 

 altogether ; but on the fourth day perseverance 

 was to be rewarded. I had with me at the time 

 a Mohammedan orderly, by name Allah Din, a 

 bit of a scamp, but a most useful ally, as he 

 spoke Burmese like a native of the country, and 

 was, moreover, a very plucky fellow. The only 

 thing against him was that at a critical moment 



