The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-08-14
BIG GAME SURE ENOUGH.
A Hunter Who Almost Invariably Got
 an Elephant With Every Bullet.

A Hunter Who Almost Invariably Got
 an Elephant With Every Bullet. l Writing of the veteran officer, Gen
 eral J. Michael, c. S. l., of the Madras l Staff Corps, who was in his time a
 noted elephant shot, a correspondent of | the Madras Mail states that one of Mchaers earliest eploits inspired his
 native attendants with a wonderful
 amount of confidence in him, as well 1t | might. He get among a herd of ele- I plants in very long grass, and for some time could not get shot. At last he got up to one, and dropping it dead, | jumped onto the body, and with a sec ond gun dropped, two more elephant s before they had time to make off.
 I had heard 1t said of Michael that
 he was in the habit of going out with
 three double barrelled guns, and had frequently got five elephants in five
 shots, but could never get the sixth
 as he always made 1t rule to Keep
 one barrel in reserve. I had an oppor- tunity of asking him If this were true.
 I cannot recollect what he said about
 having performed this feat more than
 once, but he told me how he just miss
 ed getting a sixth elephant out of a
 herd through a mistake. He got up to
 a herd in jungle and commenced oper-
 ations on a tusker that was standing
 by cump of bamboo. The smoke
 hung and he could not see what hap
 pened but on the other side of the
 clump of bamboo he saw a tusker
 which he presumed was the one he had
 just fired at so promptly dropped it.
 He had got three more out of the herd, and was reduced to his last barrel,
 when another elephant, a tusker, I think, gave him a very easy chance,
 which he could hardly have missed, but he would not break his rule, so let him
 go. On returning to the clump of bam- boos he found two tuskers dead, mak- ing five elephants in all, and regretted he had not broken his rule for once. Think of three brace of elephants for one days bag.
 The following is the feat in the recol- lection of which happen to know. The general himself finds most satisfaction
 because he considers it showed thor ough knowledge of the game; One day he was 'out botanizing with a friend, and was unarmed. They heard ele- plants in sholah below and Michael sent back for his rifles. On getting down into the shoab Michael found his quarry was two tuskers, evidently tray cling one behind the other He inter- cepted them and had covered the lead CT and was just going to fire when it flashed through his brain that the sec ond would escape him-greedy man. He accordingly dropped the hindermost elephant first, and, as he anticipated, the leader wheeled around, got blocked by his prostrate companion, and gave Michael time to lay him out beside him the two fell with their tusks together.
 General Michael shot the majopity of his hundred and odd elephants with q 14-bore which In the days of muzzle leaders was the ordinary gun, just as 12- bore is now The maximum charge in the gauge of his powder flask was five drams, but when he was loading for elephants he used to add little more. Compare this with the metal and charges used for big game now! His success in this particular form of sport was due quite as much to q per- rect kHOWleOBe or the game dS to Splen- | did shooting. His directions for finding l the way to the brain of an elephant | were as follows:
 Imagine a ramrod (there were ram rods in those days) passed from carhole | to carhole through the elephants head 1 and another bisecting 1t vertically; in | whatever position you may be, aim for i this point of bisection." I have heard | it said of Michael that he used 10 con- oentrate his thought on this one imag- mary point, that he, in sort of way, lost sight of evrything else. I presume that it goes without saying that if you find yourself in such a position that your gun cannot penetrate to the de- sired point you must not fire at all. In he old days wild elephants were looked lpon as things to be got rid of, and the government gave rewards for shooting them-I think it was 60 rupees for a cow and 90 rupees for a tusl1er-and the tusks were the property of the the London Globe.