Elephants, when standing in this undecided manner, are liable to outbursts of fury if not treated in a certain way. Sanderson says, “At such times no one should shout to turn them, as a charge by one or more is sure to be made if startled in this peculiar way. I have seen and experienced several instances of the danger of this. In Chittagong, whilst driving elephants into a stockade on one occasion, they approached the guiding line of beaters too closely, when a man who was behind a small bush shouted at them within thirty yards. A female at once charged him. The man fell; and with the pressure of her foot she split him open, and killed him on the spot. This elephant had a very young calf, from solicitude of which she became a perfect fury.”
Contrary to general belief, the single, or solitary, tuskers afford the greatest sport. They are generally found away from the herd before nine o’clock in the morning, and at this time the hunter endeavors to find them. When a great distance from a herd, the solitary elephant ceases feeding at about ten, then stands listlessly a while under cover, and finally lies down and goes to sleep. As a rule, it snores quite loudly; the sound, which has a metallic ring to it, coming from the trunk. Besides this, they often, perhaps involuntarily, raise their upper ear, and let it fall with a resounding slap upon the neck. All these sounds are well known to the trackers; and, by them, they can tell just what to expect, and how far away the game which is concealed in the jungle is.
If a bed recently used is found by the trackers, they immediately look for tusk-holes, or the impressions of the tusks in the soil, made when the animal is lying down. If they can put five fingers in the hole, they consider that the tusks will weigh thirty pounds apiece, and are well worth following.
Sanderson thus describes a hunt organized for his benefit in the Billiga-rungun hills, not far from Mysore: “I kept my eye on the tusker, who was in the middle of the line, and was wondering how I could get a shot at his brain, when, as luck would have it, some vegetable attraction overhead tempted him, and he raised his head to reach it with his trunk. I had beforehand fixed the fatal spot in my mind’s eye; and, catching sight of his temple, I fired. For a moment I could see nothing, for the smoke, but heard a tremendous commotion amongst the elephants that were in company with the tusker. Stepping a little aside, I saw their huge heads all turning towards me, their ears outspread, and their trunks coiled up in terrified astonishment. Being a novice in the sport, I felt for the moment that I was in real danger. I stood my ground however, determined, that, if any of them charged, to fire at the foremost, and to run to Jaffer for the second rifle: that failing, the case would have been rather bad. However, charging was far from their thoughts: right about! quick march! was more to their fancy; and with shrieks and trumpets, away they went, some to the right, some to the left, joined by the whole herd in one headlong race, up or down the nullah. But my tusker remained stone dead upon his knees. The triumph of such a success, utterly unassisted, and in my first inexperienced attempt, quite transported me. My bullet had reached the tusker’s brain: and, in sinking down, he must have been supported by the bodies and legs of the elephants between which he was wedged in; thus he still remained on his knees, though quite dead. He retained this kneeling position for some minutes, when, by a gradual subsidence of the carcass, he heeled over, and fell heavily on his side. I narrowly escaped being crushed between him and the bank as he sank, just springing out of the way in time. It would have been a fine thing indeed, if, after bagging my first elephant, I had fallen a victim to the collapse of his carcass.”
The largest elephant shot by this sportsman measured as follows:—
| FT. | IN. | |
|---|---|---|
| Vertical height at shoulder | 9 | 7 |
| Length from tip of trunk to tip of tail | 26 | 2½ |
| Tusks, each showing out of gum | 2 | 4 |
| When taken out, right | 5 | 0 |
| ” ”” left | 4 | 11 |
| Circumference at gum | 1 | 4½ |
| Weight (right, 37½, left, 37). | 74½ lbs. | |
At the end of a successful trip, when such an elephant has been shot, the sportsman is disposed to be liberal to the trackers; and the following is what Sanderson gave his men:—
| RS.[5] | |
|---|---|
| Present to nine Kurrabas | 36 |
| Blankets to ditto | 15 |
| Present to gun-bearers | 30 |
| Hologas for cleaning skull | 3 |
| Warm clothes for servant | 20 |
| Two carts to Kákankoté | 20 |
| Tobacco, arrack, and rice | 20 |
| Sundries | 6 |
| Total | 150 rupees, or $75 |
On one occasion, this hunter was following a herd, when two Kurrabas ahead of him began to gesticulate furiously; and, running ahead, he almost lost his life. He says, “Not knowing what to make of this, except that there was an elephant somewhere in the grass, I ran on, and almost fell into an old and disused pitfall, which now contained an elephant. His head was a little above the level of the ground. As I stepped back quickly, he threw his fore-feet on to the bank, and tried to reach me with his tusks. The whole occurrence was so sudden and unexpected, and his rush so startling, that I instinctively pulled the trigger of my four-bore rifle from my hip as I stepped back: there was no time to bring it to my shoulder. The shot went through the base of his right tusk, and buried itself deeply in his neck. He fell backwards; but, recovering himself, he commenced dashing his head with great violence against the sides of the pit in his stupefaction. I therefore took a light gun from Jaffer, and killed him.” The elephant had fallen into the pit some time before, and the herd had immediately deserted it, as, says Sanderson, they always do.