ELEPHANT?; IN TITKTR WILD STATE. 1 43 
ing old engineer the first maker of the track must have 
been. 
Wiid elephants generally go in herds of from fifteen 
upwards; the largest herd I ever saw was on the Annamul- 
lies, it numbered at least sixty animals and was a w^onderful 
sight The size of the wild elephant has been often greatly 
exaggerated ; anything over nine feet is very large, one of 
ten feet is a monster. Sanderson says " there is little doubt 
that there is not an elephant ten feet at the shoulder in 
India;" the account of the exciting encounter with the large 
tusker shot by Sir V'ictor Brooke, proves that at times they 
do exceed ten feet but it is a most rare occurrence. 
Sanderson gives such an excellent and accurate de- 
scription of the habits of this animal in its wild state that 
I need not further dwell upon the subject and will confine 
myself to a few examples of sport on the Neilgherries and 
Annamullies. 
The first elephant I ever killed was on the T2th Sep- 
tember, 1854^ when at Bundipore. I started about 3.30 to 
the hill nearly south of the bungalow, saw a peacock air- 
ing himself and shamefully missed him. Just before this I 
had heard a very loud report not far off, and as I was 
loading, two native shikar ies came up. I looked upon 
them with no friendly eye, but to my astonishment they 
told Francis, my shikarie, that there was an elephant 
close by at which they had fired and wounded and that it 
was still in the ravine ; in a very short time we arrived at 
its edge and one of the men pointed down. It was a very 
deep thickly wooded place and I could see nothing; the next 
instant the bushes moved and I heard a kind of grunt and 
the great brown back of an elephant came in sight ; 
