The jungle is open and good, interspersed with plots of rank grass; and quietly following the head tracker, into whose hands our friends have committed themselves, they follow like hounds under the control of a huntsman.The tracker is a famous fellow, and he brings up his employers in a masterly manner within ten paces of the still unconscious elephants.He now retreats quietly behind the guns, and the sport begins.A cloud of smoke from a regular volley, a crash through the splintering branches as the panic-stricken herd rush from the scene of conflict, and it is all over.X.has killed two, Y.has killed one, and Z.knocked down one, but he got up again and got away; total, three bagged.Our friends now return to the tent, and, after perhaps a month of this kind of shooting, they arrive at their original headquarters, having bagged perhaps twenty elephants.They give their opinion upon elephant-shooting, and declare it to be capital sport, but there is no danger in it, as the elephants INVARIABLY RUN AWAY.
Let us imagine ourselves in the position of the half-asleep and unsuspecting herd.We are lying down in a doze during the heat of the day, and our senses are half benumbed by a sense of sleep.We are beneath the shade of a large tree, and we do not dream that danger is near us.
A frightful scream suddenly scatters our wandering senses.It is a rogue elephant upon us! It was the scream of his trumpet that we heard! and he is right among us.How we should bolt! How we should run at the first start until we could get a gun! But let him continue this pursuit, and how long would he be without a ball in his head?
It is precisely the same in attacking a herd of elephants or any other animals unawares; they are taken by surprise, and are for the moment panic-stricken.But let our friends X., Y., Z., who have just bagged three elephants so easily, continue the pursuit, hunt the remaining portion of the herd down till one by one they have nearly all fallen to the bullet--X., Y., Z.will have had enough of it; they will be blinded by perspiration, torn by countless thorns, as they have rushed through the jungles determined not to lose sight of their game, soaked to the skin as they have waded through intervening streams, and will entirely have altered their opinion as to elephants invariably running away, as they will very probably have seen one turn sharp round from the retreating herd, and charge straight into them when they least expected it.At any rate, after a hunt of this kind they can form some opinion of the excitement of the true sport.
The first attack upon a herd by a couple of first-rate elephant-shots frequently ends the contest in a few seconds by the death of every elephant.I have frequently seen a small herd of five or six elephants annihilated almost in as many seconds after a well-planned approach in thick jungle, when they have been discovered standing in a crowd and presenting favourable shots.In such an instance the sport is so soon concluded that the only excitement consists in the cautious advance to the attack through bad jungle.
As a rule, the pursuit of elephants through bad, thorny jungles should if possible be avoided: the danger is in many cases extreme, although the greater portion of the herd may at other times be perhaps easily killed.There is no certainty in a shot.An elephant may be discerned by the eye looming in an apparent mist formed by the countless intervening twigs and branches which veil him like a screen of network.To reach the fatal spot the ball must pass through perhaps fifty little twigs, one of which, if struck obliquely, turns the bullet, and there is no answering for the consequence.There are no rules, however, without exceptions, and in some instances the following of the game through the thickest jungle can hardly be avoided.
The character of the country in Ceylon is generally very unfavourable to sport of all kinds.The length of the island is about two hundred and eighty miles, by one hundred and fifty in width; the greater portion of this surface is covered with impenetrable jungles, which form secure coverts for countless animals.
The centre of the island is mountainous, torrents from which, form the sources of the numerous rivers by which Ceylon is so well watered.The low country is flat.The soil throughout the island is generally poor and sandy.
This being the character of the country, and vast forests rendered impenetrable by tangled underwood forming the principal features of the landscape, a person arriving at Ceylon for the purpose of enjoying its wild sports would feel an inexpressible disappointment.
Instead of mounting a good horse, as he might have fondly anticipated, and at once speeding over trackless plains till so far from human habitations that the territories of beasts commence, he finds himself walled in by jungle on either side of the highway.In vain he asks for information.He finds the neighbourhood of Galle, his first landing place, densely populated; he gets into the coach for Colombo.Seventy miles of close population and groves of cocoa-nut trees are passed, and he reaches the capital.This is worse and worse--he has seen no signs of wild country during his long journey, and Colombo appears to be the height of civilisation.He books his place for Kandy; he knows that is in the very centre of Ceylon--there surely must be sport there, he thinks.
The morning gun fires from the Colombo fort at 5 A.M.and the coach starts.Miles are passed, and still the country is thickly populated--paddy cultivation in all the flats and hollows, and even the sides of the hills are carefully terraced out in a laborious system of agriculture.There can be no shooting here!
