-^ A Dying Race of Giants 



patient waiting to sight this rare conjunction of animals 

 from my place of observation either with a Goerz-Trizeder 

 or with the naked eye, but only for a few seconds at a 

 time, because of the heavy showers of rain which kept 

 falling. How disappointing and mortifying it was to find 

 oneself left in the lurch by the sun — and just immediately 

 under the Equator, where one had a right to it ! What I 

 had so often experienced in my photographic experiments 

 in the forests by the Rufu River — that is, the want of 

 sunlight for days together — now made me almost desperate. 

 At any moment the little gathering of animals might break 

 up, in which case I should never be able to get a photo- 

 graphic record of the strange friendship. Since the publica- 

 tion of my first work I have often been asked to give some 

 further particulars about this matter. Therefore, perhaps 

 these details, supported by photographs, will not be 

 unacceptable to my readers. 



I candidly admit that had I suddenly come upon these 

 great bull-elephants in the jungle in years gone by I could 

 not have resisted killing them. But I have gradually 

 learned to restrain myself in this respect. It would have 

 been a fine sensation from the sportsman's standpoint, and 

 would besides have brought in a round sum of perhaps 

 ^500 ; but what was all that in comparison with the 

 securing of one single authentic photograph which would 

 afford irrefutable proof of so surprising a fact ? 



The western spurs of the great Kilimanjaro range end 

 somewhat abruptly in a high table-land, which is grass- 

 grown and covered in patches with sweet-smelling acacias. 

 This undulating velt-region gradually slopes down until in 



523 



i'^Ut.tt lU. 



