The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1886-03-11

1.-THE day | shot my first elephant >
said an old British Indian, will always
be AIRED letter day in my sporting calen,
dar. 1t was in the Island of Ceylon
that pearl of the Indian Ocean, lying al
the foot of the great peninsula of Hin,
,dOstan, the Lanka of the ancients and
the Sercndib of the days of Solomon
the Wise, and sacred in the eyes of all
good BuddhiSts, 70. is Ii not there
where the tooth of the great god lie.
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 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
shooting, and we were in hopes that
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 ewes 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 a native
shining up a 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
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 bcaterS in at each end to
drive the elephant out. Suddenly |
heard cracking of bruShwOod, then
loud trumpet, and Jacks voice
shouting that the elephant had turned
and was coming my way. | remember
well wishing dcvOutly that he had gone
in any other direction, but | had not |
much time for thinking, rs in Il minute |
or 50 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 4 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 a Ceylon elephant.
and that is a small oval spot, in
size only a few inches, Just above
the trunk. You might fire Il battery
of gatlingS ut 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
slight headache. When an elephant
charges he raises his trunk SO that it
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 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
but Griffin at the game it 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 A
knife for me to cut through the thick
while the elephant could
&C through it like pack-thread. On
came the elephant, the ground almost
beneath his ponderous tread. |
Would he never lower that trunk? /
stood with my rifle at the present as
as statue, and, Just as he |
seemed to be right on me, down went ,
the trunk. Crack went my rifle, and !
l had to spring back a pace or two to 1
prevent the huge beast from coming
right on top of me as he fell stone dead :
at my feet. The reaction was !
great, my highly strung nerves
giving way when the elephant I
came down as if cut with a knife, and .
the rifle fell from my shaking hands. :
l have learned better manners since. ,
Soon Jack came up and we had regu- !
lar war dance round the carcass. The I
niger was sent up the nearest cocoa :
Aut and we quaffed beaker to the
pleasant passage of Jumbo's soul to the j
elephants heaven. Shooting an ele- ,
plant in a herd and shooting a rogue
elephant are two very different things.
In the first place, as l have said, YOU s
are not allowed to shoot an elephant in '
a herd under penalty of two hundred I
and fifty dollars, the Government using {