28 IN BRIGHTEST AFRICA 
I did not see the end of their efforts to raise the 
bull I had shot, for those that were not helping him 
began to circle about with their ears out to hear any- 
thing of their enemy and with their trunks up feeling 
for my wind. They were moving in ever-increasing 
circles which threatened to envelop my ant-hill, and 
I beat a hasty retreat. Not long after they evidently 
were convinced that the bull was dead and all to- 
gether they moved away. I then went to the body. 
He was dead, but as we approached there was a reflex 
action which twitched his trunk from time to time. 
This frightened the gun boys so that I went up and 
slapped the elephant’s eye, the customary test, and 
as there was no reaction the boys were convinced. 
When I looked the carcass over I was disappointed 
to find that only one of his tusks was big and well 
developed. The other was smaller, and out of shape 
from an injury; consequently I decided not to take 
him for the museum group. He was, however, a 
good deal of a temptation, for he was one of the larg- 
est elephants I had ever seen, measuring eleven feet 
four inches to the top of his shoulders, and the circum- 
ference of his front foot was sixty-seven and a half 
inches. To the best of my knowledge this is a record 
size by about four inches. I did not even skin him 
but contented myself with taking his tusks, which I 
sold for nearly $500 without even going down to 
Nairobi. 
The phenomenon of elephants helping each other 
when wounded is not general by any means. Only a 
few days after shooting the big bull I had an instance 
