THE INDIAN ELEPHANT 15 



tions. Then, again, elephants may be shot in 

 independent territory, with the sanction of the 

 reigning sawbwa, or prince ; but such places 

 are very inaccessible, and require much time 

 to reach, and very complete arrangements, 

 since no villages will be met with, and all pro- 

 visions, including fowls, eggs and rice, have to 

 be carried. The beginning of the cold weather 

 would be the best time of year in which to make 

 a trip to one of these out-of-the-way places. 

 It would be quite impossible to shoot there in 

 the rains and at the same time avoid malarial 

 fever. Worse still, the sportsman's servants 

 would be knocked over by fever to a certainty, 

 when the shooting trip would perforce come to 

 a speedy termination. The hot weather — 

 March, April, May, and the beginning of June — 

 would be the most favourable time for wandering 

 through the jungles, as the undergrowth would 

 then be low. Tracking, however, owing to the 

 dry state of the ground, would be difficult. 

 Personally, if I intended to make a lengthy 

 trip after elephants in independent territory, I 

 would choose the cold weather, taking my chance 

 of finding the beasts in thick cover. During 

 November the ground would still be damp 

 from the recent rains, while occasional showers 

 might be expected in December and January. 

 However, since in most years elephants are 

 pretty certain to be doing damage to cultivation 

 in Burma proper during the latter part of the 



