62 TRAPPING WILD ANIMALS 



frightful, and we were all covered with bites. I 

 developed fever and went about so "groggy" that 

 I was not at all sure of myself; but huge doses of 

 quinine and the excitement of tracking so large a 

 herd kept me going. 



The scouts reported that the herd numbered 

 about one hundred. I assigned fifty men to sur- 

 round the elephants and keep them moving in a 

 circle within a definite area while we built the 

 stockade. 



The work of making the trap was prodigious. 

 Trees, twenty to twenty-five feet in length and a 

 foot and a half in diameter, were cut down and 

 dragged through the jungle for half a mile or more 

 to the spot I had selected. These were planted five 

 feet in the ground and braced by three smaller 

 trees, so that they could stand the enormous pres- 

 sure of elephants trying to lunge through them. 

 The trap was round about seventy-five feet in 

 diameter with two wings, each one hundred feet 

 long, converging to the entrance. After planting 

 and bracing all the posts, we bound them together 

 with heavy ropes made of twisted rattan, and then 

 covered them with vines and leaves. For all this 

 work the natives had no tools except their par- 

 angs. It was amazing to see the rapidity with 

 which they cut down the big trees and slashed trails 

 through the jungle. Omar and I were with them 

 constantly, keeping up their enthusiasm and excite- 

 ment. 



