REMARKS ON THE AFRICAN ELEPHANT AND ITS TUSKS. 65 



a tree fully I5in. in diameter, and I have given a photo of such an occurrence. 

 Although they do not usually attack such big trees as this, they sometimes do so. 

 Perhaps they feel that they need a little strenuous exercise to keep their trunk 

 muscles in good working order. In districts that elephants have inhabited for a long 

 time, beaten tracks or paths will be noticed, some of these being beautifully chosen. 



An elephant invariably finds the easiest gradient, and paths over and round hills 

 will have been so carefully selected that they might be the work of a skilled civil 

 engineer instead of the work of animals. 



As to the height of the African elephant, there is no doubt that some of the old 

 bulls attain a shoulder height of over i ift. Mr. T. A. Barns shot two of over i ift., 

 and one of these animals can now be seen in the Central Hall of the Natural History 

 Museum at South Kensington, beautifully setup by Mr. Rowland Ward. Underneath 

 the elephant will be seen the stuffed form of the elephant-nosed shrew, as a comparison 

 between the largest and smallest mammals known. As one stands and looks up at 

 the mighty animal, it often strikes one as extraordinary that they can be so easily killed 

 with a modern small-bore, such as a 256 Mannlicher rif^e, shooting a bullet weighing 

 one hundred and fifty-eight grains. However, accidents sometimes happen, for 

 within the last four years I know of three fatalities caused by elephants. These 

 were white men ; and I have also heard of a number of natives having been killed. 

 The sport of elephant shooting is, therefore, not all one-sided, as I mentioned before. 



A charging elephant is not difficult to turn or stop, as a rule, but of course there 

 may be an exception at any time. I consider the lion, leopard, and buffalo much more 

 dangerous beasts to tackle than either the elephant or rhino, but this is only a matter 

 of opinion. 



I have only been properly charged twice by elephants ; on the first occasion he 

 turned on receiving a bullet at close quarters, and on the other occasion I killed the 

 animal in his stride with a lucky brain shot from a "303 rifle. 



When one shoots at an elephant in a herd the animals often break away in all 

 directions, and it sometimes happens that they come straight for the hunter, in which 

 case he has to take cover or clear out of the way. It is a dangerous thing to run 

 straight away from the animals, for there is nothing that will bring them on sooner than 

 seeing a man running in front of them. In parts of the country, such as the Luangwa 

 valley, where the herds of elephants make a habit of invading the natives' gardens, they 

 get very bold, and lose their instinctive fear of man, as the natives always get out of 

 their way. These garden elephants are the worst to hunt on this account, and it was 

 one of those animals that came for me on being wounded. 



Although there can be no doubt that the elephants of this part of Africa grow as 



K 



