With Flashlight and Rifle -* 



or six young calves of the most varied sizes. I am 

 inclined to believe, in common with the natives, that the 

 younger beasts are all brothers and sisters, and offspring 

 of the old females, and, I believe also, that a female 

 elephant under favourable circumstances is capable of 

 conceiving every six or seven years. 



Although one very seldom finds ticks in their skins, 

 elephants are greatly given to rolling themselves in the 

 mire, bestrewing themselves with sand and earth, and 

 rubbing their skin against trees, the so-called "sign- 

 post " trees. From this cause, like rhinoceroses, they 

 are often variously coloured, according to the colour of 

 the earth of the locality. In the highland woods, through 

 which they wander nightly, one finds hundreds of trees 

 against which they have rubbed their bodies. Such 

 rubbing-places indicate the size of the animals. On 

 July 23rd, 1903, I found such a mark 15 ft. high. 

 Crooked trees are used by preference, so that the elephant 

 can lean against them slanting-wise and with all his weight. 

 If elephants come upon open places in the forest, or go 

 away into the plains, they make use of the same strong 

 trees over and over again, until the bark is completely 

 worn away. Many gigantic trees bear witness to the 

 fact of their having been thus visited nightly during the 

 course of some hundred years. 



The thirst for ivory has for many years been the 

 cause of the formation of armed hordes in German East 

 Africa. These hordes either pursue the elephants with 

 powder and shot on their own account or are hired by 

 native agents. They often travel through wide districts, 



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