One reminds themselves that Robert Murray has, at this point, already shot and killed a deer (Asian sambhur) along the way, and yet the focus still upon an elephant he has taken to calling "Jumbo."
My interest. Perhaps yours.
He is scared, and yet perseveres. He is years removed from the trenches of war, and still the not so much glee as final comfort in putting pen to paper to correspond the fact that he will at once displace this animal being pursued for the whatever.
My interest. Perhaps yours.
He is scared, and yet perseveres. He is years removed from the trenches of war, and still the not so much glee as final comfort in putting pen to paper to correspond the fact that he will at once displace this animal being pursued for the whatever.
The letter ends...
We therefore started off, & although we walked a long way & followed several tracks, none of which were very fresh, they all led into the most appallingly thick jungle, which even the Kachins did not like the look of & so eventually we gave it up and returned to camp by about 2 o’clock. I had a nice shave & a bath after breakfast by way of celebrating Sunday & was just about to sit down to tea at 4:30 when five Kachins came along to say they had just seen the big elephant with the single tusk, sharpening it by digging it into the ground. How nice. Wasn’t I glad? Anyhow, I suggested I could not get a shot in before dark but they said old Jumbo was only about a mile north of the village up on the slopes of Namkham Boom - Boom, spelt Bum, being the Kachin for a hill - & as they were evidently keen to lead me to the slaughter & as if I once refused I might keep on refusing like a nervous horse, I went.
We followed a track leading towards the mountains from the village for about 1 mile & then we came across the first signs of Jumbo, a swath of destruction, & he was evidently larger than the other Jumbo’s I had seen as the track was wider & he had bowled over a fine healthy young tree fully 40-feet high just close to our way. We struck off the path up the hillside & I noticed the Kachins were even more cautious than previous & took special attention not to get too far ahead of me. We went up about 1000 feet & eventually came to bamboo jungle when the Kachins became extra careful & I sent one of them up a tree but he reported he could see no signs of our friend. We then very carefully followed the track into this bamboo jungle & had not gone more than 15 yards before the Kachins pointed excitedly ahead & when I went in front I found myself on the top of a slope looking down over a dense mass of bamboos & about 150 yards in front & below me was Jumbo. His back was towards me so there was no immediate hurry to do anything & I considered. I could not get in a fatal shot from that position & I couldn’t see any way to approach closer & that would in any case mean losing the advantage of being above him. I therefore determined to have potshots at him in the hope of bringing him to bay & if he charged up the hill at me I should have plenty of time to get in quite a number of shots. I proceeded to follow this plan & tried to hit him behind the left ear with the first shot. Whether I did so or not I don’t know, but he turned to the left & I immediately gave him another, at which he turned tail & crashed away, but not before I blasted another three rounds as quickly as possible in his direction. Before disappearing from view he gave an awful sort of angry scream & then we could hear him crashing about & see trees being pushed over, but he showed no signs of appearing again.
My shikari was for dashing after him at once down the slope, but as a matter of fact I found my knees were shaking with excitement & I decided to be very cautious & to hold to the top of the ridge which ran off to my left & thereby try to outflank him. I therefore got the Kachins to make a way along this ridge & when we had proceeded about 50 yards I found we had to go down slightly into the top of a nullah running down the hillside & then up the opposite bank which was fairly steep, about 50 feet high. I got down into this nullah & two Kachins were just ahead, about to go up the other side, when they suddenly screeched out “Magwee! Magwee!” & fled. I looked up & there sure enough just coming over the ridge above & straight for me was Jumbo. For the second he was on the top, silhouetted against the sky, he looked simply enormous & terribly angry & vicious. I’m quite certain the cunning old man was out to outflank me as I was him & he certainly saw me & came straight down the slope at me. I had to fire through a curtain of creepers but the first shot I hit him somewhere on the trunk, which made him swerve slightly to his right & presented me for a second with a chance to get in a fatal shot. He certainly reeled & went down on his knees, but he was up at once again & with another high-pitched roar came on again. The remaining three shots in my magazine I let him have just as rapidly as I could work the bolt, but I did try to take aim as I knew it was fatal to fire blindly, & suddenly with an even louder scream of fury & pain he collapsed & crashed down headfirst & over with a terrific thud.
It takes time to tell it, but I don’t suppose more than 30 seconds elapsed from the moment I saw him first until he crashed for good. I found my Burman shikari still with me; indeed, he had fired two rounds from my rifle, which was very stout of him, but there wasn’t a sign of the Kachins. A second or two later, however, they crawled out from the jungle, still shaking with funk & I don’t blame them, considering they were only armed with their dahs; still, it was truly remarkable & funny the way they just suddenly disappeared & when they came out again they all started to describe to each other at the same time how the brute had screamed & the noise the rifle had made. Meantime, I had reloaded, & as Jumbo made never a move I went cautiously up to him & found he required no more medicine. I don’t know yet whether he was a really big elephant as they go in Burma, but he was certainly quite as large as the one belonging to Steel Bros. on which I watched a postmortem being made when I went out to the Indawgyi Lake, so that his age must have been between 60 & 70, which I believe is considerable for a wild elephant.
I shot him at 5:30 p.m., & as the light was failing we went back to camp.
Next morning, Monday, as Ruth was at Colombo I hope, the whole village, men women & children, sallied forth with me to deal with the carcass; but just in case there might be another elephant knocking about I took precautions by keeping six Kachins as scouts in front & the women & children well behind.
Old Jumbo was quite alone, however, so work was started & I won’t weary you with details, although I did wish Dad could have been there to give advice & to marvel with me at such a huge mass of bone & flesh. Work was started at 8:30 a.m. & in 20 minutes most of the skin, quite an inch thick, had been pulled off like a great carpet. After that there were never less than eight & often as many as twelve men engaged at the same time in hacking & slashing meat off as hard as they could go & yet by 5 o’clock in the evening they had not finished completely, although there was not much left by then but the skeleton. In addition, I had six Kachins to recover my trophies. The left tusk it took us three-and-a-half hours of hard work to remove & that with the help of a hatchet in addition to dahs & daggers. It is at Sahmaw now & measures 5 feet 11.5 inches along the outside curve, weighs 47.5 pounds, & has a girth of 1 foot 4.5 inches where it emerged from the flesh. I have also got the four feet, the end of the trunk - it took three men all their time to lift the whole trunk & to carry it a few yards, the tail, & a big slab of the hide from the back. The right hand tusk had evidently been broken off many years ago & is a curious looking abortion, but you will see it in due course.
I should have mentioned that I found I had got in at least two fatal shots when he charged me: one right in the ear hole & the second straight through the left eye.
I have fairly spread myself out over this episode, but I won’t shoot another elephant & now that I have I can leave Burma in peace, I think.
I’ve got to tell you about Armistice Day too, which was a great success, but really if I have been able to take you with me elephant shooting at all as the result of this effort that must do for this week. I sent Ruth a long telegram to Colombo & prepaid a long reply but she only says she did not receive my letter, which is very disappointing, & that everything is O.K.
I’m very sorry you seem to be having such a severe winter but I’m glad to hear you are all well & I just hope you will both keep cosy & not do too much & that Mary also will keep fit & not weary over much for Ruth.
Ever your loving son,
Murray.
We therefore started off, & although we walked a long way & followed several tracks, none of which were very fresh, they all led into the most appallingly thick jungle, which even the Kachins did not like the look of & so eventually we gave it up and returned to camp by about 2 o’clock. I had a nice shave & a bath after breakfast by way of celebrating Sunday & was just about to sit down to tea at 4:30 when five Kachins came along to say they had just seen the big elephant with the single tusk, sharpening it by digging it into the ground. How nice. Wasn’t I glad? Anyhow, I suggested I could not get a shot in before dark but they said old Jumbo was only about a mile north of the village up on the slopes of Namkham Boom - Boom, spelt Bum, being the Kachin for a hill - & as they were evidently keen to lead me to the slaughter & as if I once refused I might keep on refusing like a nervous horse, I went.
We followed a track leading towards the mountains from the village for about 1 mile & then we came across the first signs of Jumbo, a swath of destruction, & he was evidently larger than the other Jumbo’s I had seen as the track was wider & he had bowled over a fine healthy young tree fully 40-feet high just close to our way. We struck off the path up the hillside & I noticed the Kachins were even more cautious than previous & took special attention not to get too far ahead of me. We went up about 1000 feet & eventually came to bamboo jungle when the Kachins became extra careful & I sent one of them up a tree but he reported he could see no signs of our friend. We then very carefully followed the track into this bamboo jungle & had not gone more than 15 yards before the Kachins pointed excitedly ahead & when I went in front I found myself on the top of a slope looking down over a dense mass of bamboos & about 150 yards in front & below me was Jumbo. His back was towards me so there was no immediate hurry to do anything & I considered. I could not get in a fatal shot from that position & I couldn’t see any way to approach closer & that would in any case mean losing the advantage of being above him. I therefore determined to have potshots at him in the hope of bringing him to bay & if he charged up the hill at me I should have plenty of time to get in quite a number of shots. I proceeded to follow this plan & tried to hit him behind the left ear with the first shot. Whether I did so or not I don’t know, but he turned to the left & I immediately gave him another, at which he turned tail & crashed away, but not before I blasted another three rounds as quickly as possible in his direction. Before disappearing from view he gave an awful sort of angry scream & then we could hear him crashing about & see trees being pushed over, but he showed no signs of appearing again.
My shikari was for dashing after him at once down the slope, but as a matter of fact I found my knees were shaking with excitement & I decided to be very cautious & to hold to the top of the ridge which ran off to my left & thereby try to outflank him. I therefore got the Kachins to make a way along this ridge & when we had proceeded about 50 yards I found we had to go down slightly into the top of a nullah running down the hillside & then up the opposite bank which was fairly steep, about 50 feet high. I got down into this nullah & two Kachins were just ahead, about to go up the other side, when they suddenly screeched out “Magwee! Magwee!” & fled. I looked up & there sure enough just coming over the ridge above & straight for me was Jumbo. For the second he was on the top, silhouetted against the sky, he looked simply enormous & terribly angry & vicious. I’m quite certain the cunning old man was out to outflank me as I was him & he certainly saw me & came straight down the slope at me. I had to fire through a curtain of creepers but the first shot I hit him somewhere on the trunk, which made him swerve slightly to his right & presented me for a second with a chance to get in a fatal shot. He certainly reeled & went down on his knees, but he was up at once again & with another high-pitched roar came on again. The remaining three shots in my magazine I let him have just as rapidly as I could work the bolt, but I did try to take aim as I knew it was fatal to fire blindly, & suddenly with an even louder scream of fury & pain he collapsed & crashed down headfirst & over with a terrific thud.
It takes time to tell it, but I don’t suppose more than 30 seconds elapsed from the moment I saw him first until he crashed for good. I found my Burman shikari still with me; indeed, he had fired two rounds from my rifle, which was very stout of him, but there wasn’t a sign of the Kachins. A second or two later, however, they crawled out from the jungle, still shaking with funk & I don’t blame them, considering they were only armed with their dahs; still, it was truly remarkable & funny the way they just suddenly disappeared & when they came out again they all started to describe to each other at the same time how the brute had screamed & the noise the rifle had made. Meantime, I had reloaded, & as Jumbo made never a move I went cautiously up to him & found he required no more medicine. I don’t know yet whether he was a really big elephant as they go in Burma, but he was certainly quite as large as the one belonging to Steel Bros. on which I watched a postmortem being made when I went out to the Indawgyi Lake, so that his age must have been between 60 & 70, which I believe is considerable for a wild elephant.
I shot him at 5:30 p.m., & as the light was failing we went back to camp.
Next morning, Monday, as Ruth was at Colombo I hope, the whole village, men women & children, sallied forth with me to deal with the carcass; but just in case there might be another elephant knocking about I took precautions by keeping six Kachins as scouts in front & the women & children well behind.
Old Jumbo was quite alone, however, so work was started & I won’t weary you with details, although I did wish Dad could have been there to give advice & to marvel with me at such a huge mass of bone & flesh. Work was started at 8:30 a.m. & in 20 minutes most of the skin, quite an inch thick, had been pulled off like a great carpet. After that there were never less than eight & often as many as twelve men engaged at the same time in hacking & slashing meat off as hard as they could go & yet by 5 o’clock in the evening they had not finished completely, although there was not much left by then but the skeleton. In addition, I had six Kachins to recover my trophies. The left tusk it took us three-and-a-half hours of hard work to remove & that with the help of a hatchet in addition to dahs & daggers. It is at Sahmaw now & measures 5 feet 11.5 inches along the outside curve, weighs 47.5 pounds, & has a girth of 1 foot 4.5 inches where it emerged from the flesh. I have also got the four feet, the end of the trunk - it took three men all their time to lift the whole trunk & to carry it a few yards, the tail, & a big slab of the hide from the back. The right hand tusk had evidently been broken off many years ago & is a curious looking abortion, but you will see it in due course.
I should have mentioned that I found I had got in at least two fatal shots when he charged me: one right in the ear hole & the second straight through the left eye.
I have fairly spread myself out over this episode, but I won’t shoot another elephant & now that I have I can leave Burma in peace, I think.
I’ve got to tell you about Armistice Day too, which was a great success, but really if I have been able to take you with me elephant shooting at all as the result of this effort that must do for this week. I sent Ruth a long telegram to Colombo & prepaid a long reply but she only says she did not receive my letter, which is very disappointing, & that everything is O.K.
I’m very sorry you seem to be having such a severe winter but I’m glad to hear you are all well & I just hope you will both keep cosy & not do too much & that Mary also will keep fit & not weary over much for Ruth.
Ever your loving son,
Murray.
His father was a highly respected doctor. And yet, he pens this correspondence to his mother, mentions concern for a sister (travelling in Colombo, Ceylon). Armistice Day within the final paragraghs.
Chasing down an elephant, ultimately killing this beautiful creature with the assistance of locals much more in tune to the animist thought, especially at the time.
The pictures above sum up the end for dear old "Jumbo." His death. A man's version of salvation, rebirth. He left Burma soon after due to the lingering concerns associated with his consistent malaria. He had loved his stay; wish to remain and shave and learn more of that word of the day clipped to the side of a mirror. But. And.
Beyond pen and paper and send and return to manner of leave, he found a version of love in his late '30's, had but one child that lived - a girl to one day pose within him, a dog, her first born, and a very peculiar stool.
Chasing down an elephant, ultimately killing this beautiful creature with the assistance of locals much more in tune to the animist thought, especially at the time.
The pictures above sum up the end for dear old "Jumbo." His death. A man's version of salvation, rebirth. He left Burma soon after due to the lingering concerns associated with his consistent malaria. He had loved his stay; wish to remain and shave and learn more of that word of the day clipped to the side of a mirror. But. And.
Beyond pen and paper and send and return to manner of leave, he found a version of love in his late '30's, had but one child that lived - a girl to one day pose within him, a dog, her first born, and a very peculiar stool.