244 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



boy in sheer wantonness, and had to be himself slain. In 

 Uganda the buffalo were for years protected, and grew so 

 bold, killed so many natives, and ruined so many villages, 

 that they are now classed as vermin and their destruction 

 in every way encouraged. In the very neighborhood where 

 I was hunting at Kenia, but six weeks before my coming, 

 a cow buffalo had wandered down into the plains and run 

 amuck, had attacked two villages, had killed a man and a 

 boy, and had then been mobbed to death by the spearmen. 

 Elephant, when in numbers, and when not possessed of 

 the fear of man, are more impossible neighbors than hippo, 

 rhino, or buffalo; but they are so eagerly sought after by 

 ivory hunters that it is only rarely that they get the chance 

 to become really dangerous to life, although in many places 

 their ravages among the crops are severely felt by the un- 

 brtunate natives who live near them. 



The chase of the elephant, if persistently followed, en- 

 tails more fatigue and hardship than any other kind of 

 African hunting. As regards risk, it is hard to say whether 

 it is more or less dangerous than the chase of the lion and 



the buffalo. Both Cuninghame and Tarlton, men of wide 



_^^^^. ^ """""'T*^ 



experience, ranked elepKant nunting, in point of danger, 



as nearly on the level with lion hunting, and as more dan- 

 gerous than buffalo hunting; and all three kinds as far 

 more dangerous than the chase of the rhino. Personally, I 

 believe the actual conflict with a lion, where the conditions 

 are the same, to be normally the more dangerous sport; 

 though far greater demands are made by elephant hunting 

 on the qualities of personal endurance and hardihood and 

 resolute perseverance in the face of disappointment and 

 difficulty. Buffalo, seemingly, do not charge as freely as 



