THE ELEPHANT, THE GIANT OF THE FOREST 



hour ago, and yet it may be absolutely impossible to follow 

 him up, if he has not stopped to feed here and there, for 

 these huge beasts walk very fast, and may go on for 

 thirty or forty miles before they stop again, if they have 

 been disturbed. 



Then, secondly, as to the size of the imprints of the 

 feet, there is some difficulty in determining with absolute 

 certainty if the animal is a large " tusker " or not. With 

 elephants as with men, big feet are not always the signs 

 of a very big and powerful " owner." Some elephants 

 with very large feet have not had large tusks, and some- 

 times, strange enough, may carry only one tusk or no tusk 

 at all, even in Africa. In Ceylon and India this is very 

 often the case. Again, some exceedingly big tuskers have 

 had remarkably small feet. But, as a general rule, a real 

 big foot means an old bull, and so the sportsman measures 

 at once the imprints in the ground after having been satis- 

 fied that the track is fresh enough to follow. If the diam- 

 eter of the imprint of the forefoot, which is more of a 

 circular form than the hind foot, is only twelve to fifteen 

 inches, it is probably not made by a fine tusker ; but if the 

 distance across the imprint from front to rear is anywhere 

 from eighteen to twenty-four inches or more, it is reason- 

 ably certain that the track has been made by some splendid 

 old tusker, which very often goes by himself instead of 

 mingling with the herd. 



Somewhat more difficult to answer is the third ques- 

 tion, as to whether the track has been made by a bull or a 

 cow elephant. If by careful measurements its diameter is 

 found to be eighteen inches or over and the tracks of the 

 hind feet fairly rounded, they have without much doubt 



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