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THE AFRICAN ELEPHANT. 



Elephants/' generally contrives to monopolize every White Elephant, 

 and employs them for purposes of state, decorating them with strings 

 of priceless gems, pearls, and gold coins, and lodging them in the 

 most magnificent of houses, where their very eating-troughs are of 

 silver. 



The African Elephant is spread over a very wide range of 

 country, extending from Senegal and Abyssinia to the borders of the 



The African Elephant {Loxodonta Africana). 



Cape Colony. Several conditions are required for its existence, such 

 as water, dense forests, and the absence of human habitations. 



Although it is very abundant in the locality which it inhabits, it is 

 not often seen by casual travellers, owing to its great vigilance and its 

 wonderful power of moving through the tangled forests without noise 

 and without causing any perceptible agitation of the foliage. In spite 

 of its enormous dimensions, it is one of the most invisible of forest 

 creatures, and a herd of Elephants, of eight or nine feet in height, may 

 stand within a few yards of a hunter without being detected by him, 

 even though he is aware of their presence. 



The Kaffirs are persevering elephant-hunters, and are wonderfully 



