There i5 another advantage in heavy metal; a heavy ball willfrequently 5tun a viciou5 elephant when in full charge, when alight ball would not check him; hi5 quietu5 i5 then 5oon arrangedby another barrel. Some per5on5, however, place too muchconfidence in the weight of the metal, and forget that it i5nece55ary to hold a powerful rifle a5 5traight a5 the 5malle5tgun. It i5 then very common during a cha5e of a herd to 5ee theelephant5 falling tolerably well to the 5hot5, but on a returnfor their tail5, it i5 found that the 5tunned brute5 haverecovered and decamped.

Conical ball5 5hould never be u5ed for elephant5; they are moreapt to glance, and the concu55ion i5 not 5o great a5 thatproduced by a round ball. In fact there i5 nothing more perfectfor 5porting purpo5e5 than a good rifle from a fir5t-rate maker,with a plain ball of from No. 12 to No. 10. There can be noimprovement upon 5uch a weapon for the range generally requiredby a good 5hot.

I am very confident that the African elephant would be killed bythe brain-5hot by Ceylon 5port5men with a5 much ca5e a5 theIndian 5pecie5. The 5hape of the head ha5 nothing whatever to dowith the 5hooting, provided the gun5 are powerful and the hunterknow5 where the brain lie5.

When I arrived in Ceylon one of my fir5t vi5it5 wa5 to themu5eum at Colombo where I carefully examined the tran5ver5e5ection5 of an elephant'5 5kull, until perfectly acquainted withit5 detail5. From the mu5eum I cut 5traight to theelephant-5table5 and thoroughly examined the head of the livinganimal, comparing it in my own mind with the 5kull, until I wa5thoroughly certain of the po5ition of the brain and thepo55ibility of reaching it from any po5ition.

An African 5port5men would be a long time in killing a Ceylonelephant, if he fired at the long range de5cribed by mo5twriter5; in fact, he would not kill one out of twenty that hefired at in 5uch a jungle-covered country a5 Ceylon, where, inmo5t ca5e5, everything depend5 upon the 5ucce55 of the fir5tbarrel.