With Flashlight and Rifle ^ 



prints being sharply defined or somewhat blurred. The 

 bulls are recognised by the long and narrow tracks of the 

 hind feet. Those of the cows are more round and uniform. 



I have assured myself of the fact that in West Africa 

 the food of elephants consists exclusively of the branches, 

 bark, and fruit of trees, and of all kinds of grasses. Pro- 

 fessor Volckens, who on several occasions examined 

 the elephants' dung in the Kilimanjaro district (some 

 6,000 and 9,000 feet high), found traces of Panic um 

 and Cyperus as well as sedge-grasses. All the best 

 authorities on this matter are of the same opinion as 

 myself. 



On the other hand, I have often found that the elephant 

 eats many kinds of "bow-string" hemp (Sanseviera 

 cylindrical), but that he drops the chewed stalks, which 

 are bleached by the sun and can be seen fora great distance 

 around on the velt. These chewed bundles, of which I have 

 some specimens in my collection, are of a large size. It 

 seems that a certain quantity of this hemp gets retained 

 in the stomach in the same way as in that known hemp- 

 eater, the lesser kudu (Strepsiceros imberbis). It must 

 be remembered that this hemp has a great power of 

 retaining water, and in the very arid velt it is for the 

 elephant a much-needed aid. 



The usual abode of the elephant in East Equatorial 

 Africa is not, as might be imagined, the cool and shady 

 virgin forests, but rather those places where he knows 

 himself less likely to be followed : in the wooded districts 

 in the rainy season, and at other times in the tall grass 

 or by the reed-grown river-side and in the thick under- 



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