Travancore as Collector and Magistrate of the Cardamom Hills, which form the southern part of the range known farther north as the Arnamalai Hills. We started before daylight to ascend the pass, about 4,400 feet high, which leads into the Cardamom Hills. At the top of the pass we came out into an open grass country in which the glens or cholahs are wooded, as in the Nilgiri Hills. After a few miles’ riding we came to a magnificent forest, in which some of the trees must have been 200 feet high, without a branch for two-thirds of their length and with wide spreading buttresses at their base. In all this country there are wild elephants, but not so many wild birds as in the lower hills, though most of them are of different species. The ground below is fairly open and more or less cultivated m small patches with the cardamom plant which grows here naturally, and is valued for its seeds, at that time worth six shillings a pound. We found Munro at a place called Colapara, where lie lived during the season of the cardamom harvest; he had a number of natives employed in gathering the seeds, which at that time were a Government monopoly. On February 12th I went out early with Bridgeman, who wounded a big sambur stag in the long grass, but we did not succeed in recovering it. After breakfast we heard of some elephants which had been disturbed by our shots, among which there was a big tusker, so we followed their trail for some way down a narrow valley with rocky hills on either side. The herd were evidently not much alarmed, as they had crossed the stream several times, and soon I came in sight of three cows, two calves and a young bull going slowly along in grass eight feet high, about 100 yards off. Then a big tusker, in company with a cow, appeared behind them, but we could not get nearer than within forty yards of him on account of the stream and high grass. As it was Bridgeman’s turn for first shot, I waited till he had fired at the ear, and then, as the bull did not fall, I aimed at the heart with the big rifle. He fell, but got up again, getting two more shots as he rushed away and disappeared in the grass. After reloading we climbed a rock, to get a better view of the ground, and we both fell into a deep hole hidden in the long grass. On getting out we thought we heard a low groan, and, approaching carefully, found the big bull lying dead. As all the shots were on the side on which he had fallen and it was im¬ possible to turn the body over, we agreed to divide the tusks, which weighed about forty-five pounds each and were considered a large pair for that district.
Though it is now fifty-two years ago, I cannot remember that this success caused me as much pleasure as several stalks after stags, elk and chamois have since done, and I do not understand, except for the danger and the value of the ivory, why elephant hunting, in India at least, is ranked among the highest forms of big game hunting. For my part, I would not care to shoot another elephant in India, and I have never had the chance in Africa.
A very curious thing happened to Munro on one of his marches in these hills, which I tell exactly as he told it to me. He was riding along on his pony, with his coolies and servants some way ahead, when he heard a great shouting from the men, who had all climbed into trees, A large rogue elephant was standing in the path, with one foot on the case of
