The Brain Of An African Elephant Rests Upon A Plate Of Bone Exactly
Above The Roots Of The Upper Grinders;
It is thus wonderfully protected
from a front shot, as it lies so low that the ball passes above it
When
the elephant raises his head, which he invariably does when in anger,
until close to the object of his attack.
The character of the country naturally influences the habits of the
animals: thus, Africa being more generally open than the forest-clad
Ceylon, the elephant is more accustomed to activity, and is much faster
than the Ceylon variety. Being an old elephant-hunter of the latter
island, I was exceedingly interested in the question of variety of
species, and I had always held the opinion that the African elephant
might be killed with the same facility as that of Ceylon, by the
forehead shot, provided that a sufficient charge of powder were used to
penetrate the extra thickness of the head. I have found, by much
experience, that I was entirely wrong, and that, although by CHANCE an
African elephant may be killed by the front shot, it is the exception to
the rule. The danger of the sport is, accordingly, much increased, as it
is next to impossible to kill the elephant when in full charge, and the
only hope of safety consists in turning him by a continuous fire with
heavy guns: this cannot always be effected.
I had a powerful pair of No. 10 polygroove rifles, made by Reilly of
Oxford Street; they weighed fifteen pounds, and carried seven drachms of
powder without a disagreeable recoil. The bullet was a blunt cone, one
and a half diameter of the bore, and I used a mixture of nine-tenths
lead and one-tenth quicksilver for the hardening of the projectile. This
is superior to all mixtures for that purpose, as it combines hardness
with extra weight; the lead must be melted in a pot by itself to a red
heat, and the proportion of quicksilver must be added a ladle-full at a
time, and stirred quickly with a piece of iron just in sufficient
quantity to make three or four bullets. If the quicksilver is subjected
to a red heat in the large lead-pot, it will evaporate. The only
successful forehead shot that I made at an African elephant was shortly
after my arrival in the Abyssinian territory on the Settite river; this
was in thick thorny jungle, and an elephant from the herd charged with
such good intention, that had she not been stopped, she must have caught
one of the party. When within about five yards of the muzzle, I killed
her dead by a forehead shot with a hardened bullet as described, from a
Reilly No. 10 rifle, and we subsequently recovered the bullet in the
VERTEBRAE OF THE NECK!
This extraordinary penetration led me to suppose that I should always
succeed as I had done in Ceylon, and I have frequently stood the charge
of an African elephant until close upon me, determined to give the
forehead shot a fair trial, but I have ALWAYS failed, except in the
instance now mentioned; it must also be borne in mind that the elephant
was a female, with a head far inferior in size and solidity to that of
the male.
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