ELEPHANT SHOOTING 243 



smeared over their bodies. The ivory tusks are, of course, 

 used as an article of trade. 



Along the course of the Zambesi river elephants are 

 to be found in vast herds, or were to be found, sixty years 

 ago, when Livingstone explored that country. One way 

 of killing them is to make platforms high up in the trees, 

 under which the elephants must pass. As soon as the 

 animal is right under the trees a man aims a spear, 

 measuring four or five feet, with a sharp blade twenty 

 inches long, straight at the elephant's ribs, and a well- 

 directed blow causes death very soon. Sometimes they 

 use instead of this a spear fixed to a beam of wood and 

 hung on a dangling cord tied to a tree. The head of the 

 spear is poisoned, and when the animal treads on the 

 cord the spear wounds him in the foot, and he dies in a 

 few hours. 



In these regions men are forced to do their hunting on 

 foot, for horses fall victims to the terrible tsetse fly, from 

 whose bite neither ox, horse, nor dog ever recovers, 

 though it never touches either wild animals or men. It 

 is, therefore, very difficult to kill an elephant with one 

 shot placed in the brain, as is done in countries where 

 horses can be used, and, besides, the climate makes hunt- 

 ing a very tiring sport, and only fit for very strong men. 



In 1850 a friend of Livingstone's, named Oswell, was 

 tracking an elephant along the banks of a river, and 

 saw him with disgust take refuge in a thicket of thorny 

 bushes, which did not hurt his hard skin, but were 

 very unpleasant to a white man. Here the country was 

 comparatively free from tsetse, so Oswell was riding, 

 and at once put his horse into the narrow path, forcing his 

 way as well as he could through the dense branches. 

 When he was well into the midst of the tangle, keeping 

 his eye steadily fixed on the elepb ant's tail, the creature 

 turned suddenly round and charged. Oswell tried to 

 break away in another direction, but found it was hope- 

 less, and in leaping from his horse caught his foot in a 



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