ELEPHANTS 729 



when it is passing through jungle, but even in the open. It 

 is said that elephants only scream when the trunk is ex- 

 tended, but if this is so, then in some cases the elephants 

 must curl the trunk the very moment the scream is fin- 

 ished, for the impression conveyed is that the screaming and 

 the advent of the furious animal with its trunk curled are 

 simultaneous. On one occasion, when an elephant charged 

 us and was stopped by a right and left from Cuninghame 

 when but a few feet distant, it threw its trunk high in the 

 air on or immediately after receiving the bullets. Carl 

 Akeley informs us that one elephant that charged him came 

 on screaming and thrashing the tall grass, tearing up and 

 tossing and plucking and brandishing branches and bunches 

 of grass, so that it looked like a hay-tedder. If an elephant 

 catches a man it usually falls on its knees and endeavors to 

 stab him with its tusks; but sometimes it knocks him down, 

 puts one foot on him, and plucks off his head or legs or arms 

 with its trunk; and sometimes it snatches him aloft with 

 its trunk and beats him against the ground, or perhaps 

 against a tree. A wounded cow elephant, on being ap- 

 proached by us, struggled to arise and uttered, not a scream, 

 but a kind of roaring growl. 



We spoke above of the fact that elephants are sometimes 

 found in the desert. This was a surprise to us. We had 

 already found them high on the cold mountain slopes, in 

 cool, park-like uplands, in wet, rank, steaming tropic jungles, 

 in thick forest, and in hot, open, grassy plains. Our old 

 hunting companion, Mr. R. J. Cuninghame, wrote us of his 

 experiences with them in the desert north of the Northern 

 Guaso Nyiro shortly after we left Africa : " From the Chanler 

 Falls we went north 40 or 50 miles. The country is covered 



