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department, were quite inoffensive in the regenerated portions. The mountains in a very short time became productive. Where formerly sheep had found a scanty subsistence, abundant crops capable of being mowed with the scythe were now to be found. The population, essentially pastoral, found henceforth nourishment and bedding for their flocks and herds either in the grass or in the leaves of the trees. The acacias, moreover, gave them poles suitable for the cultivation of the vine. Thus these people, who had formerly been most hostile, became the staunchest supporters of the Forest Administration. And, while all this indirect good was effected, the proprietors found that they had not only been relieved of the necessity for providing expensive and precarious means of defence against floods, but that their lands, formerly worthless, had acquired a considerable value.

I have given this story, which is taken from official sources, at considerable length for two

reasons.

Firstly, because I know that the larch grows fast on the south-west wastes of Ireland if not too much exposed to westerly winds, and that from twenty-two to twenty-five years of age it is capable of yielding a valuable return as material for pit wood, the properties on which it has been grown having meanwhile been fertilised by the dropping of the "needles." Secondly, be cause it would be an act of true political wisdom if we assisted in the improvement of waste lands, even although the return for such outlay should not be immediately forthcoming. I can wish the proposed Board of Forestry, when and if it is constituted, no higher honour than the contentment and gratitude of an appreciative peop'e, for some of whom it may hope to find useful employment, which is now denied them by the present state of agriculture in this country.

GEORGE CADELL.

(Late Indian Forest Department.)

183

SOMETHING LIKE A BAG.

(SOME EXPERIENCES OF AN ELEPHANT-KRAAL IN CEYLON.)

THE possibility of enjoying new amusements is rapidly lessening, as facility of communication increases and universal travel becomes the marked characteristic of the age of steam. To catch gigantic salmon in the streams of Norway, to shoot a grizzly bear in the Rocky Mountains, or to enjoy a tiger hunt in the jungles of the Maharajah of Kooch-pa-warna, has become as common an occupation with the traveller as the slaughter of partridges on English stubble or the ascent of Snowdon in August. But one may surely claim for an elephant-kraal on a large scale an element of rarity mingled with excitement which it would be hard to match; while the very size and value of the game in view raises the sport at once above the ordinary level. There are moreover two other sides to the enterprise, which certainly do not characterize all forms of sport: there is, if it is properly managed, a complete and refreshing absence of cruelty; while there is on the other hand a wide field for the exercise of pluck, endurance, skill in woodcraft, and knowledge of the habits of the animal to be captured. For whatever may be said or thought by the writers of sportingbooks, there is undoubtedly something revolting about the mere slaughter of an elephant. Of course there is just the possibility of a spice of danger just the off-chance of the animal's charging you in a blind, blundering sort of way, and bowling you over in his stride; but he is not really a hard animal to come up to: a skilful tracker and ordinary precautions will bring you to within ten yards of him, and then to shoot him is about as brave and skilful a deed as to shoot a milch cow in a farm-yard.

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elephant-kraal ranks infinitely higher in the way of sport; and at the same time affords one of the most picturesque sights, one of the most entertain ing studies of native manners and jungle life, that it is possible to imagine.

The scene of our kraal is laid in so unapproachable and unpronounceable a part of an unknown district of Ceylon, that the only way of describing it shortly is to say that it is at least forty miles from anywhere. After leaving the skirts of civilization, a long day's and night's struggle over dusty tracks and across obnoxious water-courses brings us at last to the spot where our camp has been pitched. Not an uninteresting place in itself; for half-way up the queer cylindrical rock that overhangs our tents a Singalese potentate of old days built himself a great palace. This was afterwards adopted as a temporary abode by one of the many fugitive. kings whom the vicissitudes of Singalese politics turned out of their permanent residences; but he was wise enough to carry with him in his flight that world-famous palladium, the tooth of Buddha, and rich enough to build for it a beautiful shrine, the great stairway of which has lately been restored under the enlightened policy of the present governor of Ceylon. There is something weird and startling in coming across these beautiful remains of an early civilization in so remote and desolate a spot. The fine upward sweep of the stairway, the delicate chiselling of the ornamented balustrade, the life-like posturings of the quaint dancers on the frieze, once pleased the eyes and excited the wonder of a teeming population, long since gone down into dusty death; and are

now scarce noticed in their decay by the casual villager in search of honey or herbs, or by the solitary hermit at the little Buddhist shrine near the hill.

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But just at present the secluded spot is alive with an absolutely unprecedented bustle. Carts and tents and elephants and servants are arriving every hour huts are being rapidly erected with leaves of the cocoanut and talipot palm; and the hair of the old hermit, if he had any, would stand on end at hearing the sound of English ladies' voices, and the pop of exuberant soda-water bottles. Our camp looks very picturesque as we reach it, weary and travel-stained, in the cool of the evening (if indeed coolness is ever a possible attribute of these arid regions) passing through rows of little shops that have sprung up like mushrooms on the roadside; descrying the dim form of a huge tame elephant, a future gladiator of the final fight, calmly browsing in a neighbouring clearing; and hailing with contentment the sight of the fires that tell of a possible dinner and a hot bath-though truly the colour of the water is very suggestive of buffaloes, and severely tests all our vows of cleanliness. And from time to time we can hear afar off some scattered shots and dim, confused shouting, telling us that the great game we have come to see captured is at least within ear-shot.

The first day or two we settle down in camp, and amuse ourselves as best we can with such intellectual pursuits as rounders and Aunt Sally, highly impromptu concerts, and the heartiest of midnight suppers: religi ously resisting every temptation to go near the scene of operations; and contenting ourselves with such scraps of news as we can glean from natives passing to and from the field of battle. For former kraals have always been delayed, and often spoilt, by the anxiety of the British visitor to prove that he knows more of the elephant and his ways than the native hunter;

and an officious determination to assist has turned out to be the most complete hindrance imaginable. This time the native is to be allowed to work his wicked will in his own particular way; and the result will doubtless testify to the wisdom of the self-sacrifice. But by the third day human nature and English impatience could stand it no longer. All our novels had been read, and the amount of tobacco consumed was something appalling to estimate: a flattering assurance from the captain of the hunt, that "we could do no harm now," armed us with the necessary permission; and off we set in the early morning for a day with the beaters.

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But perhaps before describing the sights we saw, it may be as well to give some account of the method in which elephants are captured. kraal is an extremely simple thing in theory. The only difficulty lies in its manipulation. The first point is to fix upon the place the kraal or corral-into which the game is to be finally driven. This is usually constructed artificially by means of a square wooden stockade lined with musket-men: in the present case Nature had provided the corral free of charge. Close to the road along which we travelled, two gigantic reefs of abrupt rock run parallel to one another for about a quarter of a mile. They enclose some six or eight acres of jungle their sides are almost precipitous, and the entrance and exit are narrow and concealed in trees. Legend says that the old Singalese kings held royal kraals here in days of old eliminate some twenty Europeans, add a little gaudy state and ceremonial, and it is not very difficult to recall the scene. Having settled on your kraal, it is logically necessary to find your quarry; and here again no great difficulty occurs, as many a poor cultivator will tell you, who has to spend long nights and much firewood in driving away the marauders from his little patch of grain. The searchparties came upon three convenient

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herds very soon after their quest began, gradually drove them together, and succeeded in enclosing between fifty and sixty. This feat, which might appear to the unitiated to be the consummation, is really only the commencement of the business. It is a difficult achievement to drive a herd of English cattle along the streets of a town on market-day: it is a difficult achievement to conduct an Irish pig, after purchase, to his new quarters: multiply these difficulties by fifty, and it is possible to conceive some notion of the trouble involved in forcing a herd of wild elephants towards a given spot. For, to begin with, there are certain requisites as regards the line of country to be chosen. In the first place the drive must be through thick jungle once get the herd into the open, and the game is up; for mystery and covers beget success, while familiarity, say both copy-books

and

shikaris, breeds contempt. Let the mammoths get a fair view of the pigmy forces distracting them with such hideous noises, and a fair field to operate in-and the result would be too obvious to be worth discussing. So, too, all roads, village-paths, open water-courses, and habitations of man must be carefully avoided; while at the same time the country chosen must contain a sufficiency of fodder and water, or the ultimate result will be disastrous in more ways than one. Secondly, although it would be comparatively easy to drive a herd of elderly male elephants, it is not these, but the females, and more especially the youngsters, which form the really valuable part of the herd, and, as if knowing their own value, give all the trouble. It is nearly always a female that leads the forlorn hope and heads the most reckless charges; and she and her progeny must be kept at all costs within the charmed circle, however hard she may seek to prove that, in the elephantine as in the human world, it is in vain to speculate, furens quid femina possit.

The operations of a Singalese kraal

are based on a semi-military formation, which perhaps, for antiquity, throws the Macedonian phalanx into the shade. Whatever the exact scientific name may be, the civilian mind would describe it as a movable oblong; and one in which, contrary to most military precedents, the post of honour is in the rear, the reason being that the back line does nearly all the beating, and that wild elephants almost invariably charge back and not forwards. The length of the front and of the back line is about a quarter of a mile, that of each side line very nearly a mile; and as the component male elements of the line are stationed very close together, for the joint purpose of conversation and safety, the number of men employed is obviously considerable. Add to the actual beaters the sutlers and camp-followers of the little army, the mere spectators, and the enterprising array of hawkers, and the computation rises with astonishing rapidity.

A visit to the "lines" in the early morning fully repays you for the thorny struggle of three miles through the low, close jungle. The camp is awake and stirring-has been stirring, in fact, since the very earliest sign of dawn appeared-and is fully occupied in that most important duty, the preparation of the morning meal. You pass along one continuous row of the neatest little huts imaginable, formed of nothing but four sticks and a few dried leaves of the talipot palm; and, in front of the huts, an equally continuous row of fires, for the enemy cooped up within the inclosure is far more afraid of flame and smoke than of his human opponents. On the safe side of the fires, then, it is possible to eat, drink, and be merry with perfect composure, and very savoury are the simple messes that are steaming and simmering on every side. But two features at once strike you as peculiar, in a Singalese crowd

the utter absence of the female sex, and the presence of the most extraordinary collection of fire-arms that

mortal eye ever beheld. The courage necessary to enable you to face a raging elephant in his native jungles. is no doubt considerable: the nerve required to fire off one of these oldworld weapons is infinitely greater. Here is an aged single-barrelled horsepistol, such as one dimly remembers to have seen in cheap illustrated editions of Dick Turpin's Adventures or The Life of Jack Sheppard there a marvellous and equally venerable musket with a barrel several yards long, the metal of which is worn so thin that you could easily squash it between two fingers. The guns being dangerous enough in themselves, the native method of loading does not render them less so. The great point of the charge appears to be quantity, regardless of proportion and result. You

may only have one shot in the day, so let it be a good one; and if, as often happens in the early morning, you are not quite sure whether the gun is loaded or not, ram in another charge or two, to make assurance doubly sure. Moreover wads are an absurd and costly luxury in the jungle: a piece of rag torn from the end of your cloth does infinitely better; and if

you can't borrow or steal the village ramrod, which the headman insists on monopolising, bump your stock on the ground so as to give the charge a fair chance of settling.

The "early birds" of the camp, having already finished their "little breakfast," are gracefully reclining in the shelter of their cabins; and, their weapons being loaded in the efficient manner described and lying ready to hand, are (mark the advance of civilisation!) loading their minds in a somewhat similar manner with literature. For the book-hawker, with his queer little tin box full of cheap pamphlets, almost as miscellaneous as the contents of a kraal musket, is a camp follower of the first importance; and the local booksellers are doing a roaring trade this morning in a Singalese account of the Queen's Jubilee, garnished with a gruesome

portrait of the Queen's most excellent and most travestied Majesty. Such as cannot read (still perhaps the majority) are endeavouring, with the help of their neighbours, to recall certain potent charms against furious elephants, which they have learnt from their wise men; while those two invariable characters, the oldest inhabitant and the village wag, have each a little knot of admirers, hanging respectively on the utterances of gray wisdom or grinning folly.

But the sun is well up by this time, and a sort of instinctive sensation or rumour, carried no one knows how, runs round the camp that the morning drive is to commence; so while the neat little huts are being rolled up into equally neat little bundles, to be carried, with the precious cookingutensils, to the next halting-place, we make our way to the back line, and are not long in finding ourselves in the presence of the captain of the hunt. He is a fine brawny specimen of a Singalese gentleman, and on great occasions, when he is attending a Governor's levée, for instance, or welcoming a new revenue-officer, is a very smart, bedizened personage indeed. At present his costume is rather adapted to circumstances than remarkable for abundance. A handkerchief round his head, the suspicion of a cloth round his loins, sandals on his feet, and the rest-as Nature made it, with the exception of a huge meerschaum pipe, from which he is enjoying a few final puffs; while near him stands a trusty and lusty henchman with his Winchester repeater and his double-barrelled express. The news he has to give us is chequered with evil tidings, Last night a bold attempt was made to drive the elephants by torch - light, but, like other nightattacks not unknown to history, it ended in partial failure, which might have been total discomfiture. glorious success attended the first rush, and then unluckily the back line, confused by darkness and thick jungle, took up too forward a position,

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