St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1886-04-17
AN ELEPHANT HUNT.
How to Surely Bring the Monarch
Down.
An American Travellers Story of the First
One He kiiled-Manner or Trapping
the Beast for rShowmen-Sagaci-
ty of Elephants In Labor.
The aay I shot ms first elephant. >,

-
The day shot my first elephant, !"
said an old British Indian, Twill 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
dostan. the Lanka Of the ancients and
the Serendib of the days of Solomon
the Wise, and sacred in the eyes of all
good BuiIhiSts. for is it 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 codntry. All
kinds of game abound IN the low coun-
try and the vast forests of the interior
"f the island. from the lowly and wary
fiying snipe TO the lordly elephant.
True, there are no tigers as in India.
but they have an equivalent in the
stealthy and fierce rheetah. Which. In
strength and cunning very nearly. if it
does not quite. approach the Royal
Bengal
''On the day in question l had started.
in company with a friend. from TrIn-
GONZALEZ, the British naval station of
the island and perhaps the finest har-
bor in the world and after driving
some forty miles INTO the interior we
left the .bandy and made tracks into
the Jungle. We were both armed with
express rifles. winch in my opinion
are by far the best weapons for elephant
shooting, and We We're IN hopes that
ere long We would come on the trail of
the ami. 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 un-
mi>takable signs that an elephant h@i
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-
phant. 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 a native
shining upa 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 winch 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
heard a cracking of brushwood. then
Il 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 had not
much time for thinking. as i'm minute |
or so out came the huge brute. He |
was a 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 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 4 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 elephants |
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 it
protects this vital spot, and trumpets
>hrllly. hoping by this means. no doubt.
to scare the hunter. When he is with
in ten PAGES he lowers his trunk and at
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
hut Griffin at the game ii was any
thing but pleasant. There was no
friendly tree near. and there was but
little chance of escape through the jun
gle if missed. as it would require
knife for ME to cut through the thick
underground. while the elephant could |
go through it ike pack-thread On
came the elephant. the ground almost |
shaking beneath his ponderous tread. |
Would he never lower that trunk? III
stood with my rifle at the present As
motionless as a statue, and. Just as he !
seemed to be right on me. down went |
the trunk. Crack! went nv rifle. and |
had to spring back a pace or two to |
prevent the huge beast from coming
right on top of me as he fell stone dead |
at NV feet. The reaction was
great. my highly strung nerves
giving way when the elephant
came down as if cut with a knife, and
the rifle fell from my shaking hands. |
have learned better manners since.
Soon Jack came up and we had = regu-