THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA 



cend and descend the steepest mountain sides of, for in- 

 stance, Mt. Kenia, the Aberdares, Kinnangop, and other 

 places. The beasts not only seem always to find the best 

 places for their paths, but understand also how to make 

 them zigzag up the steepest grades, carefully avoiding 

 any stones and rocks that are not absolutely solid and safe 

 to step on. In the same way they understand how to 

 make fine paths through the dense forest, where it would 

 be almost impossible for any human being to go forward 

 at all. 



To cite only one example of how dense these forests 

 sometimes are: A certain government forestry official, 

 already referred to in Chapter III, saw my camp fires on 

 one of the foothills of Mt. Kenia, just about three miles 

 in a straight line from his house. He started out in the 

 early morning, thinking that he could easily reach me 

 before eight o'clock, and although doing his utmost to 

 make as good headway as possible, he did not arrive until 

 after twelve at noon, just in time to partake of my Sun- 

 day dinner, having had to cut his way through the jungle 

 almost inch by inch, as there were no animal paths leading 

 in the desired direction. 



The elephant has a much more varied and luxuriant 

 " table " than that of nearly all other wild animals, for his 

 meals consist of branches and young shoots of certain 

 trees, while of others he eats the bark only. He is very 

 fond of bamboo leaves and twigs as well as of the young 

 bamboo sprouts, before these open up. The forest giant 

 probably also consumes a great deal of grass. In certain 

 parts of the country, where he has been much hunted and 

 where he spends the greater part of the time in the dense 



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