THE WAYS OF THE ELEPHANT 77 



is brewing beneath those heavy skins, which on 

 an adult animal will average an inch and a half 

 in thickness. 



Many a man has Providence to thank for 

 creating so powerful a creature with a serious 

 defect poor eyesight. I am not aware that 

 any oculist has examined the sight of an ele- 

 phant to determine how far it can see, but it is 

 certain that, so far as discovering a human be- 

 ing is concerned, its eyesight is not of much use 

 beyond fifty yards. Time and again men have 

 stood by the side of a tree, crouched by a bush, 

 or lain flat on an ant-hill while a herd of infuri- 

 ated elephants charged about only a few yards 

 away. 



While out hunting white rhinoceroses in the 

 Lado country on the White Nile, we came upon 

 a herd of nine elephants. When first seen they 

 were on a burnt tract about four hundred yards 

 away, but they gradually drew nearer until they 

 were within two hundred yards. We did not 

 wish to kill them, so rather than run the risk of a 

 charge and be compelled to shoot them we circled 

 them. From an ant-hill we watched the great 

 brutes for fifteen minutes and were in plain sight 

 all the time, yet they never detected us. An 



