Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-07-10

ySar1 was ssvsnty-saght elspnanta bat I
s seS n..R {hfnkinS snst ned tnsq Pee.
have iiasd 4 issst douSss th.t number : :n'
Like every one else who has shot many
elephants on food. have had 6onaA marrow
escapes. and have owed my life many
can almost invariably be stopped IN full
charge by shot IN any part Of the head
or chest. even though the wound inflicted
may not be mortal. When an African ele-
phant charges he raises his head and
spreads his enormous ears like two sails.
When he first PUSHES out he often raises
his trunk high in the cir, trumpeting
loudly the while. But such demonstra-
ton IL. I think. usually only meant to
Brighten his enemies, and he Ii not likely
to come far with his trunk appraised before
turning round and rejoining the herd. But
when an elephant really means to charge
home he comes on Casually at any rate)
with his trunk held down between his
tusks. and the point curled in toward his
chest chest. keeping up . succession Of short.
sharp screams OF rage all the time. 1t
L. useless then to try to kill him with q
shot in the front Of the head. as the angle
at which his head IL held makes 1t imDos-
OF the man he is charging. who Is standing
perhaps some twenty yards in front OF
him, to reach his brain (which lies low
down In the back Of the slulD without
first passing through some two feet OF
trunk and q great deal OF bone.
The best shot under such circumstances
is right through the trunk into the chest,
as q powerful or smooth-bore gun will
drive bullet right through an elephants
trunk and then reach his heart. I have
killed several In this way, and have hit
many others in the head, trunk or chest
on the side of the trunk when they were
charging, but without exception every one
as soon as he was struck Immediately stop
DeQ screaming and Swerve6 off side
once remember 1 was charged by an ele-
plant bull which 1 had wounded with a
O-bore Metford rifle by Gibbs of Bristol.
AS he came on / wondered whether the
small bore bullet would stop him, as It
would have been all up with me had it. not
done So He was screaming loudly, but
in mediately the little bullet struck him in
the chest he swerved off and became
silent. and killed him with another shot
Elephant hunting on horseback is very
inuch pieasanter, and infinitely less Ia
given thoroughly trained horse and fairly
open country to hunt in, there ought not
TO be much danger in the sport But one
ca mot always have things ones own way,
and, as a matter of fact, when you do
Come up with the elephants, your horse
VII! usually be pretty tired, and your game
VIII be encountered very probably in the
dense, thorny jungle through which n
charging elephant can crash in almost
straight line. while a horse has to pick his
way among the trees and bushes Under
sucn circumstances horse which, in open
ground and when fairly fresh could give
an elephant forty yards out of 100, and then
peat MIN, may very easily be caught by his
nulky pursuer, and many cases have come
within wiz my own knowledge where horses
and their riders have been overtaken h,
eiephants. sometimes with fatal results.
nsysei1 once had a marvellous escape. as
my urea morse was run into and thrown
ooWn by wounded COW elephant from
unoer whose body 1 extricated myself nm
nurt indeed, but covered with blood that
Was streaming from a wound in her chest
F. C. SELOUS.