ON AN ELEPHANT HUNT. HOW TO BRING DOWN THE MONARCH OF THE JUNGLE.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 184, 25 December 1886, Page 7

ON AN ELEPHANT HUNT. HOW TO BRING DOWN THE MONARCH OF THE JUNGLE.

A TRAVKLLttR'S STOUY OF THE FrRSC ONE HE} Killed-Cub Manner ok Trapping the BKAbT KOll fcJ rOWAIEM—MKKriNG XIIIB CHARGE OK a '" KOGUI2." " The day I shot my first elephant," said aa old Bxifcish Indian to the reporter, "will always be a red-letter day in my sporting calondar. It was in the leland of Coylon, that pearl o£ the Indian Ocean, I had etartcd, in company with a friend, from Trincomaloo, the British naval station of the ialand and peihaps the finest harbour in tho world, and after driving some forty miles into the interior we left the ' pandy ' and make tracks into the jungle. We were y/oth armed uith express riflos, which. ii 0 /oy opinion aro by far the best weapons for . ele Plian*> shooting, and we were in hope* tJ]at. ere lon S we would come on thtt J jra^ °f 'ani,' nor were we di«appoiijf6v^» ior shortly our attention was drawn by the native guides to the young bamboos on the h 'r-*e °* tho Path which bora unmistakable gignt' that an elephant had been feeding there /3oon we came oa further evidence of Ms presence, and oa we wont, our eyes on the ground, toiling through the jungle after the elephant. And, oh, the beat! And, oh, the thirst ! Every now and then we had to halt and wipe tho perspiration from our browe, and send a native 'shinning' up a cocoanut tree for one of the young nuts, from which we eagorly drank the milk, mixed "with just a leetle drop of Hennetsy's three star from our flasks.

On the Trail of Sir Jumbo. '•Wo were hou.s toiling after that brute, and thought we would never come up to him. At la?t the trail lead right into a porb of oasis of putno, or grass land, in the middle of which there wa? an inland of jungle, Tb.© trail went straight into this, ao that we were sine that we had Sir Jumbo at last, My iriend Jack P. wont round to one side while I remained on the other, and then we sent beaters in at each end to drive the elephant out. Suddenly I heard a crackling of bushwood, then a loud trumpet, and Jack's voice shouting that the elephant had turned and was coming my way. liemembered well wishing devoutly that he hadgonein another diiLCtion, but I had not much time for thinking, a& in a minute or so out came the huge brute. He was a 'rogue' and a bigone to boot. A * roguo 'is an elephant that has be rm driven from the herd for wine mis conduct or other, and he is generally ' mad,' waiidering about the country alone and doing all the damage he can. fiia band is againbt evory man and every man's" hand is agai.iffc him. A 'rogue' elephant is the only kind you can shoot, as the elephants in Ueida ate very strictly pveaovved. by the Ceylo2> Government. " Well, when this gentleman came out of the jungle he ga-od about him for a second or two, and then, catchiug iight of me, raised bis tmnk and gave a trumpet that would have made the angel Gabriel grson with, envy, and then charged right at me. Now pome? the diilicultpart of elephant shooting. There id only one vulnerable spot on a Ceylon clephnnt, and that is a small oval spot, in £ize only a few inches, jiuc above the. trunk. You might fire a battery of gatlings at any other spot and tail to b\ing him down, and oxic© X counted oitihleen bullet marks in an elephant's &kull we killed, not one of which had probably given him more than a slight headache When fin elephant charges he raises hid trunk &o that it prefects this vital sput, and at the saino time trumpets shrilly, hoping by thi^ means?, no doubt, to t-caie tba hunter When lie ia within ten p.xces he iowtvo his ttutvk and at the came time nring- 1 his head down, after the manner of a bull -\\hen charging. Now is the time to fare, and God have rneicy on you if you mi'-s, for tho elephant won't It is an anxious moment and for ono who was, but a ' Gnliiu ' >it tho game it was anything but. plca«ant. There A\as no friendly tree near, and there was little chance ot e&cape through tho jungle if I missed, a^ it would require a knife ioi ma to cut throng the thick undergrowth, while tho elephant could go through it like p^ck-thread.

Wlien the Slephant Came Down. "On came the elephant, the grouud almost, shaking beneath hi? ponderous tread. Would he never lowei that trunk ? I stood with my liilo at the ' present ' as motionless as a statue, and, just as he seemed to be right on me, down went the trunk Crack ! wont my rifle, arid I had to spring back a pace or two to prevent the huge beast from coming right <on top of me as ho fell stone dead at my feet. The reaction was great, my highly stmng nerves giving way "when the elephant came down as if cut with a knife, und the rifle fell from my shaking hands. I have learned better manners since. Soon Jack camo up, and we had a rogular war dance round the carcase. The ' n 'gg er ' was pent up the nearest cocoanut, and we quaffed a beaker to the pleasant passage of Jumbo 's> soul to the elephants' "Elephants are caught in what are known as kraaK They arc caught either for u°e in the public works department, for servica in the native temples, or for sale to some European menagerie. When a kraal is to he formed word is to be sent to the native headman of the village, near where the kraal is to be built, and he in hiB turn Bond.s out hundreds of betters. When the herd to t>e operated on is located, tho bexters form a semi circle and begin driving the animals slowly toward the kraal. At night they build watch fires and between them the natives patrol, armed with, ■white wands, which are quite sufficient to keepthe elephants from breakingthroush. Tb.9y gradually work them up toward the kraal* which is an open spaca in the jungle, with some stout trees growing within ic. It i& surrounded by a strong stockade, and has only a nai row entrance. Into this the kerd is driven. "The herd U generally led by an old bull olephant, and before any attempt to capture an elephant is raado this old gentleman muot be c-hot. The bull got rid of, the next thing to do is to send in twG tame elephauta, with their mahouts, who single out the elephant to be captured. The tamo ones then ' scuddle ' up, one on each side, and profess great friendship for their wild companion, gradually preening him or her closer and closer until they have him fast. Then a -native slips in underneath; and quickly makes ropes fast to the wild one's leg?, and he is dragged by the tame elephants to the nearest tree, where, after being thrown to the ground, he is securely bound and left there to starve for two* or three days. He is then quite tame, and when he rises up he is no longer monarch of the forest but elephant No. 999 of the public works department or the great Jumbo of a travelling circus." — " Chicacft Herald,"

Hampton Court Palace was pet on fire on. November 19fch, by the bursting of a lamp. The fire started in the apartments abutting on the tennda courfc, and all these have been. destroyed.