THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA 



reader will perhaps bear with me if I here quote a few 

 lines directly from my diary, written on this same Fourth 

 of July, 1906: "Toward evening Mr. Lang and his men 

 arrived with the elephant skin, head and feet, it looking 

 very much like a big funeral procession as they all de- 

 scended from the escarpment into the valley and slowly 

 and carefully crossed the Meroroni River to the monot- 

 onous and doleful tunes of their native songs ! 



" Yesterday, as I for the last time looked around where 

 the fallen elephant lay, solemn thoughts came to my mind. 

 There stood, dead and bare, an enormous cedar tree, and 

 almost at its very * feet ' lay, slain by human hands in an 

 instant, and with a comparatively small bullet, the largest 

 of the remnant of the mightiest of beasts! Looking at 

 both, a great sadness fell over me and I went away silently 

 toward camp in the light of the shining moon. . . ." 



We found when measuring the elephant that his length 

 was 24' y" ; height from the shoulders, 11' 4''; around the 

 chest, 18' 7''; length of the trunk, 8' 6" \ circumference 

 of one of the front legs, 5' 2" ; length of tusks, 7' 2" ; and 

 weight of same, 168 pounds. 



A few years later, when tracking elephants through 

 high grass and partly dense bush in the Kisii country, we 

 ran into a herd of about two hundred elephants of all sizes 

 and ages, including two very large bulls. As we were 

 trying to close in on them to get nearer to these splendid 

 " tuskers," I noticed to my utter surprise that two of the 

 young bulls actually sazv us at over two hundred yards' 

 distance! It is generally believed that the elephant is 

 very nearsighted, but in this case they must have seen 

 us, as we walked along, for they could not possibly have 



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