238 ELEPHANT-HUNTING [ch. x 



fields, when they do so at all, only at night, and before 

 daybreak move back into the forest to rest. Elsewhere 

 they sometimes spend the day in the open, in grass or 

 low bush. AVhere we were, at this time, on Kenia, the 

 elephants sometimes moved down at night to feed in 

 the shambas, at the expense of the crops of the nati^'es, 

 and sometimes stayed in the forest, feeding, by day or 

 night, on the branches they tore off the trees, or, occa- 

 sionally, on the roots they grubbed up with their tusks. 

 They work vast havoc among the young or small growth 

 of a forest, and the readiness with which they uproot, 

 overturn, or break off medium-sized trees conveys a 

 striking impression of their enormous strength. 1 have 

 seen a tree a foot in diameter thus uprooted and over- 

 turned. 



The African elephant has never, like his Indian kins- 

 man, been trained to man's use. There is still hope that 

 the feat may be performed ; but hitherto its probable 

 economic usefulness has for various reasons seemed so 

 questionable that there has been scant encouragement 

 to undergo the necessary expense and labour. Up to 

 the present time the African elephant has yielded only 

 his ivory as an asset of value. This, however, has been of 

 such great value as wellnigh to bring about the mighty 

 beast's utter extermination. Ivory himters and ivory 

 traders have penetrated Africa to the haunts of the 

 elephant since centuries before our era, and the elephant's 

 boundaries have been slowly receding throughout historic 

 time ; but during the century just past the narrowing 

 process has been immensely accelerated, until now 

 there are but one or two out-of-the-way nooks of the 

 Dark Continent to which hunter and trader have not 

 penetrated. Fortunately the civilized powers which 

 now divide dominion over Africa have waked up in 



