Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1899-01-05
AN ELEPHANT DRIVE.

We began the drive in the forenoon.
The elephants were, contrary to our
expectation and to their habits hith-
erto, all together in one large gather
ing. To arrive at the stockade they
had first to reach small level plateau
on the top of a hill, from which they
were TO be DETECTED to their left down
a slope, at the foot Of which was the
stockade, well screened in the Jungle.
The two building palisades OF wings,
converging to the gate Of the stockade,
were run up the hillside the distance
of some two hundred yards, at fifty
yards apart. Three fre-lines were
made through the jungle across the
space between the guiding palisades,
one joining them at their extreme ends,
one halfway down, and one about SIX,
ty yards from the gate. On these
lines dry grass was stacked in bundles
and hidden by green leaves, ready to
be fired when the elephant had crossed
the paths. The drive was well man
aged, the herd being kept together and
not over-driven, which often causes a
herd to break up into small parties.
The wind favored US and the elephants
were going to the plateau near the
mouth of the funnel-ike approach to
the gate without very much trouble.
Here the men closed IN from all sides,
directed by spies in the trees, as the
grass was too high for those on foot to
ge5 what the elephants were doing.
AS the herd trooped past my post
at the end of one of the palisades, it
seemed as if the procession would never
end my veteran gun-bearer, Jafa,
whispered they were "as the insects OF
the forest. Tuskers, females, and
young elephants of all sizes bundled
along, those IN the rear finally showing
good deal of apprehension as the
hunters began to close in on them.
The moment the last had crossed the
outermost fre-line the spies sounded
their rattles, and as if by magic q had
not spared few dozen match-boxes
among the mem a cracking line OF
flame extended along the hillside, join
ing the palisade, and cutting off re-
treat. Immediately the hitherto COM
paratlveIy silence of the drive was
broken by yelling and blank firing
from all sides, and the elephants hur-
ried forward in crowd, no longer fol-
lowing any leader, but each striving
not to be last. They soon crossed the
second fre-line, and at signal from
fog-horn, barely audible in the din
of elephants and men, active fellows
raced forward from both ends with
torches, and in a few second this line
I
also was wall of fire.
The third line was similarly fired
when the herd had passed, and now
the fun wqxed fast and furious.
Some of the elephants went into the
stockade at once, but a huge male
with the right tusk only (such ele-
phants are called Gunesh, and certain
caste Of Hindus reverence them) took
up his position in the gateway, which
was only eleven feet wide, and no eIe-
phaut could pass him. The scene
now was extraordinary. The space
between the converging palisades was
tightly packed by struggling mass
Of elephants for many yards from the
gate. Every vestige OF jungle had
disappeared, and the men were skir-
mishlng with blank cartridges and
torches of blazing grass up to within
twenty yards or less Of the elephants,
and a shower of sticks and clods was
kept up over the palisades by those
outside. The roaring Of the young
sters of the herd, which were being
trampled and squeezed, combined
with the noise OF rattles, guns, and
of the fire consuming the jungle be-
tween the palisades IN the direction
whence the elephants had come, made
| it impossible to make ones self heard
by any one even at ones elbow. l
fred several charges Of shot into the
rearmost of the elephants, though
really I thought them little to blame
for not moving on ! 1t was not for
want OF will or pushing, as the angles
of their hind legs, as they bored des-
perately into the mass before them,
mutely testified. At last the Oppo-
sition gave way, the Gunesh and 9TH