The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-03-13

1.-The day 1 shot my first elephant, :"
said an old British Indian, evil always
be AIRED letter day in my sporting calen-
dar. 1t was in the Island of Ceylon,
that pearl of the Indian Ocean, lying at
the foot of the great peninsula of Hin
1ostan, the Lanka of the ancents and
the Serendib of the days of Solomon
the Wise, and sacred in the eyes of all
good Buddhists, for is 1t not there
where the tooth of the great god lies
upon the golden lotos leaf? Ceylon is
the paradise of sportsmen, the beau
ideal of perfect hunting country. All
kinds of game abound in the low coun-
try and the vast forests of the interior
of the island, from the lowly and wary
flying snipe to the lordly elephant.
True, there are no tigers as in India,
but they have an equivalent in the
stealthy and fierce cheetah, which, in
strength and cunning very nearly, if it
does not quite, approach the Royal
Bengal
''On the day in question had started,
in company with q friend, from Trim
GONZALEZ, the British naval station of
the island and perhaps the finest har-
Dor in the world, and after driving
some forty miles into the interior we
left the handy and made tracks into
the Jungle. We were both armed with
express rifles, which in my opinion
are by far the best weapons for elephant
ehnAfinor aud ,,,h
ere long we would come on the trail of
the AM, nor were we disappointed,
for shortly our attention was drawn by
the native guides to the young bamboos
on the side of the path, which bore I'M
mistakable signs that an elephant had
been feeding there. Soon we came on
further evidence of his presence, and
on we went, our eyes on the ground,
toiling through the jungle after the ele-
plant. And, oh, the heat! And, oh,
the thirst! Every now and then we
had to halt and wipe the perspiration
from our brows. and send native
shining up cocoanut tree for one
of the young nuts, from which we
eagerly drank the milk. We were
hours toiling after that brute and
thought we would never come up to
him. At last the trail led right into a
SORT of oasis of patna, or grass land, in
the middle of which there was an
island of jungle. The trail went straight
into this, so we were sure
that we had Sir Jumbo at last. Ny
friend Jack P. went round to one side
while remained on the other, and
then we sent beaters in at each end to
drive the elephant out. Suddenly l
heard a cracking of brushwood, then
loud trumpet, and Jacks voice
shouting that the elephant had turned
and was coming my way. / remember
well wishing devoutly that he had gone
in any other direction, but l had not
much time for thinking, as in a minute
or so out came the huge brute He
was rogue and big one to boot. A
rogue is an elephant that has been
driven from the herd for some miscon-
duct or other, and he is generally
mad, wandering about the country
alone and doing all the damage he can.
His hand is against every man and
every mans hand is against him. A
rogue elephant is the only kind you
can shoot, as the elephants in herds are
very strictly preserved by the Ceylon
Government. Well, when this gentle
man came out of the jungle he gazed
about him for second or two, and
then, catching sight of me, raised his
trunk and gave a trumpet that would
have made the angel Gabriel green
with envy, and then charged right at
me. Now comes the difficult part of
elephant shooting. There is only one
vulnerable spot on a Ceylon elephant,
and that is small oval spot, in
size only few inches, Just above
the trunk. You might fire a battery
of gatlings at any other spot and fail to
bring him down, and once / counted
eighteen bullet marks in an elephant
skull we killed, and not one of which
had probably given him more than a
slight headache. When an elephant
charges he raises his trunk so that il
protects this vital spot, and trumpets
shrilly, hoping by this means, no doubt,
to scare the hunter. When he is with.
in ten PAGES he lowers his trunk and al
the same time brings his head down
after the manner of bull when charg.
ing. Now is the time to fire. 1t is an
anxious moment, and for one who was
but a Griffin at the game it was any
thing but pleasant. There was NJ
friendly tree near, and there was bu
little chance of escape through the jun
gle if | missed, as it would require {
Knife for me to cut through the thich
underground, while the elephant coulC
go through it like pack-thread. Or
came the elephant, the ground almos
shaking beneath his ponderous tread
Would he never lower that trunk?
stood with my rifle at the present a.
motionless as a statue, and, Just Us ht
seemed to be right on me, down wen
the trunk. Crack! went my rifle, anC
j had to spring back pace or two t.
prevent the huge beast from coming
right on top of me as he fell stone deaf
at my feet. The reaction Wiz