298 HUNTING ADVENTURES. 



was now in my power, but I would not lay him low so far frorr. 

 camp ; so, having waited until he had regained his breath, I drove 

 him halfway back toward the wagons. Here he became obstreper- 

 ms ; so loading one barrel, and pointing my rifle towards the 

 clouds, I shot him in the throat, when, rearing high, he fell back- 

 ward and expired. This was a magnificent specimen of the 

 giraffe, measuring upward of eighteen feet in height. I stood for 

 nearly half an hour engrossed in the contemplation of his extreme 

 beauty and gigantic proportions ; and if there had been no ele- 

 phants, I could have exclaimed like Duke Alexander of Gordon 

 when he killed the famous old stag with seventeen tine, " Now I 

 can die happy." But I longed for an encounter with the noble 

 elephants, and I thought little more of the giraffe than if I had 

 killed a gemsbok or an eland 



Before proceeding further with my narrative, it may here be in- 

 teresting to make a few remarks on the African elephant and his 

 habits. The elephant is widely diffused through the vast forests, 

 and is met with in herds of various numbers. The male is very 

 much larger than the female, consequently much more difficult to 

 kill. He is provided with two enormous tusks. These are long, 

 tapering, and beautifully arched ; their length averages from six 

 to eight feet, and they weigh from sixty to a hundred pounds each. 

 In the vicinity of the equator the elephants attain to a greater size 

 than to the southward; and I am in possession of a pair of tusks 

 of the African bull elephant, the larger of which measures ten feet 

 nine inches in length, and weighs one hundred and seventy-three 

 p mnds. The females, unlike the Asiatic elephants in this re- 

 spect, are likewise provided with tusks. The price which the 

 largest ivory fetches in the English market is from 28 to 32 

 per hundred and twelve pounds. Old bull elephants are found 

 singly or in pairs, or consorting together in small herds, varying 

 from six to twenty individuals. The younger bulls remain for 

 many years in company of their mothers, and these are met to- 

 gether in large herds of from twenty to a hundred individuals. The 

 food of the elephant consist of the branches, leaves, and roots of 

 .rees. and als.j of a variety of bulbs, of the situation of which he 



