Some persons prefer the latter to rifles for
elephant-shooting, but I cannot myself understand why a decidedly
imperfect weapon should be used when the rifle offers such superior
advantages. At twenty and even thirty paces a good smooth-bore will
carry a ball with nearly the same precision as a rifle; but in a country
full of various large game there is no certainty, when the ball is
rammed down, at what object it is to be aimed. A buffalo or deer may
cross the path at a hundred yards, and the smooth-bore is useless; on
the other hand, the rifle is always ready for whatever may appear.
My battery consists of one four-ounce rifle (a single barrel) weighing
twenty-one pounds, one long two-ounce rifle (single barrel) weighing
sixteen pounds, and four double-barrelled rifles, No. 10 weighing each
fifteen pounds. Smooth-bores I count for nothing, although I have
frequently used them.
So much for guns. It may therefore be summed up that the proper battery
for Ceylon shooting would be four large-bored double-barrelled rifles,
say from No. 10 to No. 12 in size, but all to be the same bore, so as to
prevent confusion in loading. Persons may suit their own fancy as to the
weight of their guns, bearing in mind that single barrels are very
useless things.
Next to the `Rifle' in the order of description comes the 'Hound.'
The `elk' is his acknowledged game, and an account of this animal's size
and strength will prove the necessity of a superior breed of hound.
The `elk' is a Ceylon blunder and a misnomer. The animal thus called is
a `samber deer,' well known in India as the largest of all Asiatic deer.
A buck in his prime will stand fourteen hands high at the shoulder, and
will weigh 600 pounds, live weight. He is in colour dark brown, with a
fine mane of coarse bristly hair of six inches in length; the rest of
his body is covered with the same coarse hair of about two inches in
length. I have a pair of antlers in my possession that are thirteen
inches round the burr, and the same size beneath the first branch, and
three feet four inches in length; this, however, is a very unusual size.
The elk has seldom more than six points to his antlers. The low-country
elk are much larger than those on the highlands; the latter are seldom
more than from twelve to thirteen hands high; and of course their weight
is proportionate, that of a buck in condition being about 400 pounds
when gralloched. I have killed them much heavier than this on the
mountains, but I have given about the average weight.
The habits of this animal are purely nocturnal. He commences his
wanderings at sunset, and retires to the forest at break of day.
