Thirteen Years Among the Wild Beasts of India; Their Haunts and Habits from Personal Observations with an Account of the Modes of Capturing and Taming Elephants (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1896 Excerpt: ... and though I have killed them thus with my 4-bore, I think it a pity to do so. It would be cruel to fire at them there with smaller bores. When an elephant can be approached to within a few yards, and dropped on the spot, it is hardly sportsmanlike to take a long shot, and risk wounding the animal uselessly. The guns called jinjalls with which elephants were shot by natives in former days, are simply small cannon, fired from a tripod-stand. Two which I have weigh 45 lb. each, and carry a round bullet of nearly half a pound. The charge used was about half a pound of powder; native powder is not very strong, however. The guns are of native iron, the admirable softness of which alone prevented their bursting. A hunting-party consisted of four men--two to carry the gun slung on a pole, one the stands, and the fourth--the captain--to track, lay the gun, and to fire it. When the elephants were standing listlessly in thick cover at mid-day the gun was placed on the stands at about three feet from the ground, and directed anywhere on an elephant's carcass. It was fired with a touch-match, which gave the hunters two or three seconds to get away. It was usually fired within thirty yards' distance. The match being applied, every one ran for their lives, as the gun, being overcharged for its weight, always flew back several yards, and broken limbs were not unusually the result of failing to get clear. Elephants seldom escaped when wounded, and active hunters are said to have bagged five or six occasionally in a day. As a reward of 7 per head was paid for them by the Madras Government, this was a lucrative employment. There is no doubt that if this slaughter had not been prohibited years ago, the number of elephants would have been very much diminished at this da...