102 
WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WA YS 
CHAP. 
attention to this subject, especially as it affects the 
character of elephants. How those creatures manage 
to communicate with each other it is impossible to 
determine, but the fact remains that a very few days’ 
shooting will clear out an extensive district, although 
the area may comprise a variation of open prairie 
with a large amount of forest. I have frequently 
observed, in the portion of Ceylon known as the 
Park country, the tracks of elephants in great num¬ 
bers which have evidently been considerable herds 
that have joined together in a general retreat from 
ground which they considered insecure. In that 
district I have arrived at the proper season, when 
the grass after burning has grown to the height of 
about 2 feet, and it has literally been alive with 
elephants. In a week my late brother General 
Valentine Baker and myself shot thirty-two, and I 
sent a messenger to invite a friend to join us, in 
the expectation of extraordinary sport. Upon his 
arrival after five or six days, there was not an 
elephant in the country, excepting two or three old 
single bulls which always infested certain spots. 
The reports of so many heavy rifles, which of 
necessity were fired every evening at dusk in the 
days of muzzle-loaders, for the sake of cleaning, must 
have widely alarmed the country, but independently 
of this special cause there can be no doubt that after 
a few days’ heavy shooting, the elephants will com¬ 
bine in some mysterious manner and disappear from 
an extensive district. In many ways these creatures 
are perplexing to the student of natural history. It 
