Upon this arrangement the duration of sport in this country materially
depends. If the shooting is conducted thoughtlessly here and there,
without reference to the localities, the whole 'Park' becomes alarmed at
once, and the elephants quit the open country and retire to the dense
chenar jungles.
I proposed that we should commence shooting at our present encampment,
then beat towards the Cave, shoot over that country towards Pattapalaar,
from thence to cross the river and make a circuit of the whole of that
portion of the 'Park,' and finish off in the environs of Nielgalla.
Banda approved of this plan, as we should then be driving the borders of
the `Park,' instead of commencing in the centre.
Dec. 1.--The scouts were sent out at daybreak. At two o'clock P.M. they
returned: they had found elephants, but they were four miles from the
tent, and two men had been left to watch them.
Upon questioning them as to their position, we discovered that they were
in total ignorance of the number in the herd, as they had merely heard
them roaring in the distance. They could not approach nearer, as a
notoriously vicious rogue elephant was consorting with the herd. This
elephant was well known to the natives from a peculiarity in having only
one tusk, which was about eighteen inches long.
