A LESSON FROM THE ELEPHANTS 



ried on the heads of porters by easy stages for another 

 hundred miles. Three months after the bridge had been 

 built from it, dry rot set in and a few months later 

 what was left over from the dry rot and the subsequent 

 attacks by termites was cleaned up by a herd of ele- 

 phants who thoroughly enjoyed themselves, pulling the 

 rest of it to pieces. All the time, within a few hundred 

 yards, there had been available a sufficient supply of 

 termite-proof trees which would have provided an ex- 

 cellent trestle bridge well serving the purpose required 

 and would not have attracted the destructive instincts 

 of the playful herd of elephants. Along the river a little 

 farther, my friend, Rupert Hempsted, Officer Com- 

 manding the Masai Reserve, had successfully erected 

 trestle bridges as described which must have evidently 

 conformed to the aesthetic taste of the herd and in 

 other ways met with their approval, for these bridges 

 still stand as evidence of what can be done with local 

 timber products. 



Although East Africa may not for a long time ap- 

 preciably affect the world's timber supply, the forests 

 will more and more become a vital factor in the future 

 of the Colony itself. The proportion of forests to the 

 whole area of the Colony is all too small, and if there is 

 to be a continuous supply of timber available it will be 

 necessary to take steps to increase the productivity of 

 the existing forests by proper scientific management; 

 above all, scientific research is urgently needed, whether 

 from the point of view of perpetuating the existing 



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