CANDELM5RA EUPHORBIA TREES 



IX 



The African Elephant 



OUR knowledge of the ways of the African elephant 

 is very scanty. We know that from the days 

 of Scipio man began to break him in to service like 

 his Indian cousin, but there is little to be learnt about 

 him during the intervening centuries, beyond that he 

 continued to flourish in his hundreds and thousands all 

 over the vast regions in which he dwelt. So it was until, 

 with the arrival of the European traders, ivory became 

 all at once a much-coveted article. The supply of 

 elephants' tusks appeared inexhaustible. In the west of 

 Africa, especially, there were undoubtedly large treasure- 

 stores of ivory, accumulated by native chiefs. The 

 invention of the modern rifle made the slaughtering of 

 elephants an easy matter. It would be difficult to calculate 

 the tremendous numbers of elephants that were killed. 

 The natives, seeing the gain to be got, took part zealously 

 in the annihilation with their primitive weapons. 



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