A native can now obtain a gun for thirty shillings; and with two
shillings' worth of ammunition, he starts on a hunting trip.
Five elephants, at a reward of seven shillings per tail, more
than pay the prime cost of his gun, to say nothing of the deer
and other game that he has bagged in the interim.
Some, although very few, of the natives are good sportsmen in a
potting way. They get close to their game, and usually bag it.
This is a terrible system for destroying, and the more so as it
is increasing. There is no rest for the animals; in the day-time
they are tracked up, and on moonlight nights the drinking-places
are watched, and an unremitting warfare is carried on. This is
sweeping both deer and buffalo from the country, and must
eventually almost annihilate them.
The Moormen are the best hunters, and they combine sport with
trade in such a manner that "all is fish that comes to their
net." Five or six good hunters start with twenty or thirty
bullocks and packs. Some of these are loaded with common cloths,
etc., to exchange with the village people for dried venison; but
the intention in taking so many bullocks is to bring borne the
spoils of their hunting trip - in fact, to "carry the bag." They
take about a dozen leaves of the talipot palm to form a tent, and
at night-time, the packs, being taken off the bullocks, are piled
like a pillar in the centre, and the talipot leaves are formed in
a circular roof above them. The bullocks are then secured round
the tent to long poles, which are thrown upon the ground and
pinned down by crooked pegs.
These people have an intimate knowledge of the country, and are
thoroughly acquainted with the habits of the animals and the most
likely spots for game. Buffaloes, pigs and deer are
indiscriminately shot, and the flesh being cut in strips from the
bones is smoked over a green-wood fire, then thoroughly dried in
the sun and packed up for sale. The deer skins are also
carefully dried and rolled up, and the buffaloes' and deer horns
are slung to the packs.
Many castes of natives will not eat buffalo meat, others will not
eat pork, but all are particularly fond of venison. This the
Moorman fully understands, and overcomes all scruples by a
general mixture of the different meats, all of which he sells as
venison. Thus no animal is spared whose flesh can be passed off
for deer. Fortunately, their guns are so common that they will
not shoot with accuracy beyond ten or fifteen paces, or there
would be no game left within a few years. How these common guns
stand the heavy charges of powder is a puzzle. A native thinks
nothing of putting four drachms down a gun that I should be sorry
to fire off at any rate. It is this heavy charge which enables
such tools to kill elephants which would otherwise be
impossible. These natives look upon a first-class English rifle
with a sort of veneration. Such a weapon would be a perfect
fortune to one of these people, and I have often been astonished
that robberies of such things are not more frequent.
There is much difference of opinion among Ceylon sportsmen as to
the style of gun for elephant-shooting. But there is one point
upon which all are agreed, that no matter what the size of the
bore may be, all the guns should be alike, and the battery for
one man should consist of four double-barrels. The confusion in
hurried loading where guns are of different calibres is beyond
conception.
The size and the weight of guns must depend as much on the
strength and build of a man as a ship's armament does upon her
tonnage; but let no man speak against heavy metal for heavy game,
and let no man decry rifles and uphold smooth-bores (which is
very general), but rather let him say, "I cannot carry a heavy
gun," and "I cannot shoot with a rifle."
There is a vast difference between shooting at a target and
shooting at live game. Many men who are capital shots at
target-practice cannot touch a deer, and cannot even use the
rifle as a rifle at live game, but actually knock the sights out
and use it as a smoothbore. This is not the fault of the weapon;
it is the fault of the man. It is a common saying in Ceylon, and
also in India, that you cannot shoot quick enough with the rifle,
because you cannot get the proper sight in an instant.
Whoever makes use of this argument must certainly be in the habit
of very random shooting with a smoothbore. How can he possibly
get a correct aim with "ball" out of a smoothbore, without
squinting along the barrel and taking the muzzle-sight
accurately? The fact is, that many persons fire so hastily at
game that they take no sight at all, as though they were
snipe-shooting with many hundred grains of shot in the charge.
This will never do for ball-practice, and when the rifle is
placed in such hands, the breech-sights naturally bother the eye
which is not accustomed to recognize any sight; and while the
person is vainly endeavouring to get the sight correctly on a
moving object, the animal is increasing his distance. By way of
cutting the Gordian knot, he therefore knocks his sight out, and
accordingly spoils the shooting of the rifle altogether.
