48 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



by favour of King Menelik, he can hunt elephants at 

 pleasure, but the permission of that monarch must 

 first be asked and obtained, and a carefully signed 

 and sealed permit secured, which will frank the sports- 

 man through the various provinces of that somewhat 

 turbulent country. In German and British East 

 Africa, where some of the finest elephant-shooting in 

 the world is yet to be obtained, elephants are now 

 pretty carefully protected, and the gunner will in 

 any case have to pay a heavy license fee for his 

 sport. 



Elephants vary considerably in stature, and 

 especially in the size and quality of their ivory, 

 in different parts of Africa. Fifty or sixty years 

 ago some of the largest elephants and tusk-bearers 

 used to be shot on the Limpopo and Botletli rivers, 

 South Africa. The elephant of Somaliland, a dry 

 and barren country, although of fair average size- 

 about 10 feet 6 inches in the large males, carries 

 poor tusks, which average little more than 35 Ibs. 

 to 70 Ibs. the pair. Undoubtedly the finest ivory 

 in the world is borne by the elephants of Equatorial, 

 and especially of East Equatorial Africa. Mr. A. 

 H. Neumann, hunting in this country, towards 

 Lake Rudolf, some eight years since, shot several 

 bulls carrying teeth weighing as much as 115 Ibs. 

 and 1 1 6 Ibs. apiece, and measuring eight or nine feet 

 in length over the curve. The ivory of this part of 

 Africa is also the most valuable and most saleable, 

 being what is known as " soft " ivory. That ex- 

 ported from West Africa is more usually " hard " 



