60 AFRICAN ADVENTURE STORIES 



During my eleven months in Africa I must 

 have seen about two hundred elephants not 

 many, it is true, when one realises that the 

 professional elephant hunter who knows the 

 best elephant country finds them in herds num- 

 bering into the thousands. 



In regions where elephants are common they 

 cause considerable damage to the natives by 

 raiding the plantations usually at night and 

 feeding on sugar-cane, corn, and vegetables. 

 We passed through one section of country where 

 the people had constructed grass watch-houses 

 in the tops of trees, in which guards were sta- 

 tioned to look for elephants. As soon as a herd 

 was sighted an alarm was sounded and the peo- 

 ple gathered with drums, horns, and other racket- 

 making devices and frightened the elephants 

 away. 



A chief told us that the buffaloes also raided 

 the "shambas" (gardens) and between the ele- 

 phants and the buffaloes the inhabitants of a 

 village were sometimes compelled to desert it 

 and settle in another locality. 



Elephants become so bold that they tear down 

 huts and even kill people. Within two days' 

 march of Lake Albert we came to a village near 



