Big Game Shooting 



out the length and breadth of tropical Africa 

 lording it over all, and smashing up thick scrub 

 jungle into matchwood as he takes his daily 

 promenade. 



He is found, we will say, in a certain district 

 twenty miles square. He may stay there for 

 a fortnight, but never in the same locality. He 

 and his attendants, two or three other bulls with 

 fifty or sixty cows and calves, go feeding on, 

 slowly, now halting when they arrive at their 

 favourite trees for a bit, now making up for lost 

 time whilst they pass something that doesn't taste 

 so nice, still feeding ; and then doing a sprint for 

 some thirty miles if they have been shot at and 

 thereby alarmed. It is very impressive to hear 

 the crashing of the boughs as they wind their 

 trunks round them and pull them down, then 

 skinning them, so to speak, by running their 

 trunks all along them ; when the mass of foliage 

 they have gathered describes a catherine-wheel 

 as their trunks curl downwards and convey their 

 food to their mouths. 



An elephant never rests, according to our use 

 of the word. He stands by day and stands at 

 night, now eating, now trekking, and when he 

 has got nothing to do he is sure to be mechanic- 

 ally switching the flies away with his great ears, 

 and swinging a leg. That is a curious habit. 

 He stands on three legs and swings the fourth. 

 They cannot lie down on their sides except in 



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