LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 



17 



end of the enclosure, and the moment he heard the 

 noise of the roller in motion, round he would turn, 

 and rush down towards it in a rampant state, till 

 he was brought up by the strong iron railing, 

 which those who saw these paroxysms began to 

 think must go down like reeds before him. 



If we have no immediate prospect of beholding 

 the living forms of the African species of this 

 genus, we have a very fair chance of soon seeing 

 the two other pachyderms mentioned above ; and 

 a slight sketch of their habits and history may not 

 come amiss to those who are not merely content 

 with sight-seeing, but like to know something 

 about what they see. 



To begin, then, with the African elephant 

 Elephas Africanus. Notwithstanding the accounts 

 frhich we read relative to the enormous stature of 

 this species in the narratives of travellers who 

 have come suddenly upon them, the better opinion 

 is that it is smaller than the Asiatic elephant. 

 The principal differences are visible in the head, 

 ears, and nails of the feet. The contour of the 

 head is round, and the forehead is convex instead 

 of concave : the ears are considerably longer than 

 those of its Asiatic congener, and on each hind- 

 foot the African elephant has only three nails, 

 while the Asiatic has four. 



The following dimensions of a male elephant, 

 which was killed near Bm, some ten miles from 

 Kouka, are given by Major Denham, who arrived 

 at the place where the huge quarry lay just as the 

 elephant, which was not more than twenty-five 

 years old, had breathed his last : 



Length from the proboscis to the 



tail, 25 ft. 6 inches. 



Proboscis, 7 6 



Small teeth, 2 10 



Foot longitudinally, 1 7 



Eye, 2 by 1 



From the foot to the hip-bone, . . 9 6 



From the hip-bone to the back, . . 3 



Ear, 2 2 by 2 t> 



But he says that he had seen much larger 

 elephants than this alive ; some, he adds, he 

 should have guessed to be sixteen feet in height, 

 and with tusks probably exceeding six feet in 

 length. Major Denham, however, acknowledges 

 that the elephant whose measurement is above 

 given, which was the first he had seen dead, was 

 considered of more than common bulk and stature. 



This unfortunate animal was brought to the 

 ground by hamstringing, and was eventually de- 

 spatched by repeated wounds in the abdomen and 

 proboscis : five leaden .balls had struck him about 

 the haunches, in the course of the chase, but they 

 had merely penetrated a few inches into his flesh, 

 and appeared to give him but little uneasiness. 

 The whole of the next day the road leading to the 

 spot where he lay was like a fair, from the num- 

 bers who repaired thither for the sake of bringing 

 off a part of the flesh, which, Major Denham ob- 

 serves, is esteemed by all, and even eaten in secret 

 by the first people about the sheikh. " It looks 



coarse," adds the major, "but is better flavored 

 than any beef I found in the country." Upon this 

 occasion whole families put themselves in motion 

 to partake of the spoil. 



The manner of hunting the elephant (says Majoi 

 Denham) is simply this : From ten to twenty 

 horsemen single out one of these ponderous animals, 

 and, separating him from the flock by screaming 

 and hallooing, force him to fly with all his speed ; 

 after wounding him under the tail, if they can there 

 place a spear, the animal becomes enraged. One 

 horseman then rides in front, whom he pursues 

 with earnestness and fury, regardless of those who 

 press on his rear, notwithstanding the wounds they 

 inflict on him. He is seldom drawn from this first 

 object of pursuit ; and at last, wearied and trans- 

 fixed with spears, his blood deluging the ground, 

 he breathes his last under the knife of some more 

 venturesome hunter than the rest, who buries his 

 dagger in the vulnerable part near the abdomen : 

 for this purpose he will creep between the animal's 

 hinder legs, and apparently expose himself to the 

 greatest danger : when this cannot be accom- 

 plished, one or two will hamstring him while he is 

 baited in the front ; and this giant of quadrupeds 

 then becomes comparatively an easy prey to his 

 persecutors. 



In one of his hunting expeditions while at 

 Kouka, Major Denham was shooting wild fowl, 

 when one of the sheikh's people came galloping 

 up with the information that three very huge ele- 

 phants were grazing close to the water. When 

 he and his party came within a few hundred yards 

 of them, all the persons on foot, and Major Den- 

 ham's servant on a mule, were ordered to halt, 

 while the major and three others rode up " to 

 these stupendous animals." 



The sheikh's people began screeching violently ; 

 and although the beasts at first appeared to treat 

 the approach of the cavalcade with great con- 

 tempt ; yet after a little they moved off, erecting 

 their ears, which had till then hung flat on iheir 

 shoulders, giving a roar that shook the ground 

 under the horsemen. 



One (says the major) was an immense fellow, I 

 should suppose sixteen feet high ; the other two 

 were females, and moved away rather quickly, 

 while the male kept in the rear, as if to guard their 

 retreat. We wheeled swiftly round him ; and 

 Maramy, (a guide sent by the sheikh,) casting a 

 spear at him, which struck him just under the tail, 

 and seemed to give him about as much pain as 

 when we prick our finger with a pin, the huge 

 beast threw up his proboscis in the air with a loud 

 roar, and from it cast such a volume of sand, that, 

 unprepared as I was for such an event, nearly 

 blinded me. The elephant rarely, if ever, attacks ; 

 and it is only when irritated that he is dangerous ; 

 but he will sometimes rush upon a man and horse, 

 after choking them with dust, and destroy them in 

 an instant. 



Cut off from his companions, the elephant took 

 the direction leading to where the mule and the 

 footmen had been left. They quickly fled in all 

 directions ; and the man who rode the mule, 

 which was not inclined to increase its pace, was 

 so alarmed that he did not get the better of the 



