OF WILD ANIMALS 35 



shoulder. No wonder the poor little chap squalled for help. 

 His mother, on the other side of the partition, was almost 

 frantic with baffled sympathy, for she could do nothing to 

 help him. 



It did not take more than a quarter of a minute to have 

 several men running for crowbars and other things, and within 

 five minutes from the discovery we were in the den ready for 

 action. The little chap gave two or three cries to let us know 

 how badly it hurt his leg to hang there, then bent his small 

 mind upon rendering us assistance. 



First we lifted him up bodily, and held him, to remove the 

 strain. Then, by good luck, we had at hand a stout iron bar 

 with a U-shaped end; and with that under the injured wrist, 

 and a crowbar to spring the treacherous overhang, we lifted 

 the foot clear, and lowered little Brownie to the floor. From 

 first to last he helped us all he could, and seemed to realize 

 that it was clearly "no fair" to bite or scratch. Fortunately 

 the leg was neither broken nor dislocated, and although Brownie 

 limped for ten days, he soon was all right again. 



After the incident had been closed, I gave the men a brief 

 lecture on the language of bears, and the necessity of being 

 able to recognize the distress call. 



You can chase bison, elephants and deer all day without 

 hearing a single vocal utterance. They know through long 

 experience the value of silence. 



The night after I shot my second elephant we noted an 

 exception. The herd had been divided by our onslaught. 

 Part of it had gone north, part of it south, and our camp for 

 the night (beside the dead tusker) lay midway between the 

 two. About bedtime the elephants began signalling to each 

 other by trumpeting, and what they sounded was "The assem- 

 bly. " They called and answered repeatedly; and finally it 

 became clear to my native followers that the two herds were 

 advancing to unite, and were likely to meet in our vicinity. 

 That particular trumpet call was different from any other 



