not often; and upon those occasions I had loaded with the conical ball.
This, although it will penetrate much farther through a thick substance
than a round ball, is not so effective in elephant-shooting as the
latter. The reason is plain enough. No shot in the head will kill an
elephant dead unless it passes through the brain; an ounce ball will
effect this as well as a six-pound shot; but there are many cases where
the brain cannot be touched, by a peculiar method of carrying the head
and trunk in charging, etc.; a power is then required that by the
concussion will knock him down, or turn him; this power is greater in
the round ball than in the conical, as a larger surface is suddenly
struck. The effect is similar to a man being run through the arm with a
rapier or thrust at with a poker--the rapier will pass through him
almost without his knowledge, but the poker will knock him down. Thus
the pointed conical ball will, perhaps, pass through an elephant's
forehead and penetrate as far as his shoulders, but it will produce no
immediate effect. For buffalo-shooting the conical ball is preferable,
as with the heavy charge of powder that I use it will pass completely
through him from end to end. A four-ounce ball, raking an animal from
stem to stern, must settle him at once. This is a desirable thing to
accomplish with wild buffaloes, as they may, frequently prove awkward
customers, even after receiving several mortal wounds from light guns.

The four-ounce conical ball should be an excellent weapon for African
shooting, where the usual shot at an elephant is at the shoulder. This
shot would never answer in Ceylon; the country is not sufficiently open
to watch the effects produced upon the animal, and although he may have
a mortal wound, he carries it away with him and is not bagged. I have
frequently tried this shot; and, although I have seen the elephants go
away with ears and trunk drooping, still I have never bagged more than
one by any but the head shot. This fellow was a small `tusker,' who