Munro’s big rifle, the stock of which was broken, and his trunk over the large medicine chest which Munro was in the habit of carrying in order to doctor his numerous coolies. The elephant appeared stupefied, and remained for some time without moving. When at last the animal went off, Munro found that a bottle of chloroform in the chest was broken, and this had apparently affected the elephant. The same animal the next year attacked Lord Waterpark, who was riding in the district, and pursued his pony, which it caught and killed, after the rider had jumped off. We saw the bones of this rogue lying on the hillside, where he had been killed by a native armed with a matchlock, who had crept up close to him and put an iron bullet into his brain.
I had very bad luck one evening when I had gone out alone with my Henry 500 express to look for sambur. I spied a large tusker standing alone in the long grass, and saw that he had very long and very much curved tusks. As I had only two solid hardened bullets with me, I determined to follow the elephant till I got what seemed a chance for a deadly shot, and, after going round to get the wind right, I followed the tracks through grass about eight feet high. The elephant, however, turned back and returned on the other side of a small nullah, parallel to his former track, so that I only saw him when he was pretty close to me. I remained still until he moved on, and then I took what I thought a sure aim at the temple, and fired. The elephant shook his head but did not fall, I remained motionless, expecting a charge; but he moved on into a dense cholah, where I did not dare to follow him alone, as it was now getting dusk. The only thing I could do was to light fires in the grass to keep him from coming out; this I did and returned to camp. Next day we found him gone. Munro sent out trackers who followed his tracks a long way into the low country, where he joined a herd; they either lost the tracks or were afraid to go further. Some time after, Munro heard that an elephant with very long and curly tusks, which was almost certainly my beast, had been found dead with a bullet in his head, and the tusks had been cut out and carried to the Rajah of Travancore. I asked Munro to try and purchase them for me and offered 600 rupees, which was a high price at that date. But they were so much admired for their length and shape that he could not get them, and thus I lost the finest trophy that I ever killed.
We visited several coffee planters who had recently settled in the neighbourhood of Peermaad at about 3,500 feet elevation in the Travan¬ core Hills, Coffee planting was then a very profitable business in this district, as land and labour were cheap, and the crops good, something like ten pounds per acre profit being often realised. Cinchona had just begun to be grown, but tea planting was not started for years afterwards, though I believe that a large part of the forests over which I hunted are now cleared and covered with thriving and profitable tea gardens.
The best book written by a planter that I have ever read is Experience of a Planter in Mysore, by R.H. Elliot, now of Clifton Park near Kelso, where he has been as successful in agriculture as he was in planting.
During our stay in this beautiful country I ascended one of the highest mountains in Southern India, which I do not think had then been measured,
