Elephant-shooting is doubtless the most dangerous of all sports if the
game is invariably followed up; but there is a great difference between
elephant-killing and elephant-hunting; the latter is sport, the former
is slaughter.
Many persons who have killed elephants know literally nothing about the
sport, and they may ever leave Ceylon with the idea that an elephant is
not a dangerous animal. Their elephants are killed in this way, viz.:
The party of sportsmen, say two or three, arrive at a certain district.
The headman is sent for from the village; he arrives. The enquiry
respecting the vicinity of elephants is made; a herd is reported to be
in the neighbourhood, and trackers and watchers are sent out to find
them.
In the meantime the tent is pitched, our friends are employed in
unpacking the guns, and, after some hours have elapsed, the trackers
return: they have found the herd, and the watchers are left to observe
them.
The guns are loaded and the party starts. The trackers run quickly on
the track until they meet one of the watchers who has been sent back
upon the track by the other watchers to give the requisite information
of the movements of the herd since the trackers left.
