6 BIG-GAME SHOOTING IN UPPER BURMA 



elephant, the tusks of which were the finest 

 trophy I ever obtained. 



But to hark back to my subject. Early on 

 the morning of the fourth day I moved camp 

 some ten miles in the direction of a village, 

 Thapan, not far from the township of Budalin. 

 As we got near the village we were met by an 

 excited party of villagers, who reported that 

 the herd had visited their cultivation overnight, 

 and was now pretty certain to be found in the 

 Thapan jungles, some three miles from the 

 village. Here was news indeed ! Leaving word 

 for my kit to be taken on to the village, Allah 

 Din and I started off at once, accompanied by 

 three villagers as trackers. It was now past eight 

 o'clock, and though I felt pretty sure of getting 

 up to the herd, the chances were that we should 

 find the elephants resting in thick cover instead 

 of feeding, thus making the search for a big 

 tusker difficult. On approaching the jungle, 

 which was bordered by a large sandy nullah, 

 or ' choung ' as it is called in Burma, I was 

 disappointed at not finding any traces of the 

 herd, and began to think my men were mistaken. 

 But they were positive that the elephants were 

 somewhere in that jungle, so we retraced our 

 steps and tried in another direction, and at last 

 hit off the fresh tracks of the herd. There had 

 been no recent rain, and it proved a difficult 

 business to follow the trail over an open grass 

 plain. In due course we reached the choung, 



