ELEPHANTS 721 



as they frequently unite in a rush against the human hunter. 

 Tarlton once witnessed such a charge by a party of elephant 

 cows against a lion. They chased it several score yards. 

 It just managed to escape into a belt of thick forest, which 

 the cows in their rage then proceeded to wreck for an area 

 of many yards. 



Elephants are at home in all kinds of ground. They 

 climb astonishingly well, clambering up and down places 

 where it seems extraordinary so huge a creature can go at all. 

 They also frequent swamps and marshes and swim broad 

 rivers, but they sometimes get mired down. The captain 

 of the launch that took us from Butiaba told us that he once 

 found three elephants still alive, but fast in the deep mud 

 some distance from the bank of the Nile. They were young- 

 ish beasts, nearly full grown. Elephants travel very great 

 distances when thoroughly alarmed or when on migration; 

 no other game comes anywhere near them in this respect. 

 They prefer shade at noon, but do not find it essential. 

 Again and again we saw herds standing throughout the hot 

 hours, in bush no higher than their backs, in tall grass that 

 did not reach as high as their backs, or in short grass among 

 almost leafless acacias; and this not only among the fairly 

 cool foot-hills of Kenia and by the 'Nzoia River, but by the 

 banks of the White Nile. By the Nile the elephant herds, 

 like the rhinos, and like the buffalo near Nairobi, were 

 often accompanied by flocks of white cow herons. It was 

 often possible to tell where the great beasts were by watch- 

 ing the flocks of white herons circling over the reeds or 

 perched in the tree tops near by. On burnt ground or in 

 short grass the herons would all march alongside their 

 hosts, catching the grasshoppers which were disturbed by the 



