154 WANDERINGS AND MEMORIES 



but my Ndorobo said ' bulls ' — and bulls they were, 

 ten of them in a clump, solemnly digging roots 

 with a curious, pendulum-like swinging, backwards 

 and forwards of one forefoot, and flipping these 

 bulbs into their mouths with their trunks — so 

 quick is this action that they don't seem to take 

 hold of the bulb, but merely to strike in. They 

 were within a few yards of the dense wall of high 

 bulrushes, but I had dropped in for what I call 

 a soft thing — ^what one very rarely gets in elephant 

 hunting — as they were in the open. Well, I was 

 lucky, and scored two with each rifle, and though 

 two had to be despatched, not one had been able 

 to go many yards into the swamp. I thought to 

 myself, ' If I could only do that with driven 

 partridges.' ... I got a longer tooth this last 

 trip than any yet, though not so heavy as many I 

 have killed; it tapes nine feet five inches along 

 the curve. I don't feel to have fallen off in my 

 hunting form yet, and I think my nerve is calmer 

 than ever, in spite of my advanced years. I don't 

 think I am as enduring as of yore. ..." 



Early in 1905 a big move in the direction of 

 game preservation in East Africa took place. In 

 the main these restrictions were both eminently 

 desirable and necessary if the magnificent fauna 

 of that country were to be preserved, but when 

 protection or limitation in the killing of elephants — 

 especially in the " Hinterland," over which the 

 Game Preservation Society, as well as the Govern- 

 ment, had as yet still little power — was to be 

 enforced, Neumann thought he saw in it the germ 

 of personal spite and jealousy. In this he was 



