6<J WILD BEASTS AND TIIKIU WAYS CIIAI-. 



following impossible. However, we felt sure that the elephant I 

 had hit with the half-pound explosive shell would die, and after 

 creeping through upon the tracks with the greatest difficulty for 

 about l. r >0 yards, we found it lying dead ujnin its side. 



The whole morning was occupied in cutting up the flesh and 

 making ft jwft-mortfm examination. We found the inside partially 

 destroyed by the explosive shell, which had shattered the lungs, 

 but there was an old wound still open where a bullet had entered 

 the chest, and missing the heart and lungs in an oblique course, 

 it had passed through the stomach, then through the cavity of the 

 Ixxly Iwiieath the ribs and flank, and had penetrated the fleshy 

 mass inside the thigh. In that great resisting cushion of strong 

 muscles the bullet had expended its force, and found rest from its 

 extraordinary course of penetiation. After some trouble, I not 

 otdy traced its exact route, but I actually discovered the projectile 

 embedded in a foul mass of green pits, which would evidently have 

 been gradually absorbed without causing serious damage to the 

 animal. To my surprise, it was my own Xo. 10 two-groove conical 

 bullet, composed of 12 parts lead and 1 of quicksilver, which 

 I had fired when this elephant had advanced towards me at night, 

 forty-two days ago, and 22 miles, as far as I could ascertain, from 

 the spot where I had now killed it. The superior size of this 

 animal to the remainder of the herd had upon both occasions 

 attracted my special attention, hence the fact of selection, but I 

 was surprised that any animal should have recovered from such a 

 raking shot. The cavity of the body abounded with hairy worms 

 about 2 inches in length. These had escaped from the stomach 

 through the two apertures made by the bullet ; and upon an 

 examination of the contents, I found a great number of the same 

 jvirasites crawling among the food, while others were attached to 

 the mucous membrane of the paunch. This fact exhibits the 

 recuperative power of an elephant in recovering from a severe 

 internal injury. 



The natives of Central Africa have a peculiar method of de- 

 stroying them, by dropping a sj>eries of enormous dagger from the 

 branch of a tree. The blade of this instrument is about 2 feet in 

 length, very sharp on both edges, and about 3 inches in width at 

 the base. It is secured in a handle about IS inches lung, the top 

 of which is knobU-d ; upon this extremity a mass of well-kneaded 

 tenacious clay mixed with chopped straw is fixed, weighing 10 or 

 12 !!., or even more. When a large herd of elephants is dis- 

 covered in a convenient locality, the hunt is thus arranged : A 

 number of men armed with these formidable drop-spears or 



