VI 



ELEPHANT 



E LEPRAS AFRICAN US 

 SwAHiLi : Tembo. Arabic : Fil. 



I THINK the story of the bagging of my 

 first Uganda elephant is rather amusing, 

 because he behaved distinctly improperly 

 and was a cause of great annoyance to 

 me, besides boring one of my men to bitter 

 tears. 



When I was on the march north, whilst still in 

 Uganda proper, I got news of a big herd of 

 about eighty elephants, with two good bulls in 

 it. The remainder was made up of females with 

 their young ones and half-grown bulls. Large 

 numbers of elephants visit this part of the 

 country at the breeding season, because the grass 

 being nowhere higher than a man's shoulders, 

 the little ones can get about with greater ease 

 than in the tall elephant grass described else- 

 where. The country here is plentifully sprinkled 

 with small trees and stunted shrubs, so its general 

 appearance gives one the impression of an Eng- 

 lish apple orchard on a large scale. It is a " top-^ 

 hole " shooting-ground, as it is very difficult to be 



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