ELEPHANT HUNTING 



289 



this happy result; the credit belongs especially to England 

 and to various Englishmen. It would be a veritable and 

 most tragic calamity if the lordly elephant, the giant 

 among existing four- 

 footed creatures, should 

 be permitted to vanish 

 from the face of the 

 earth. 



But of course pro- 

 tection is not perma- 

 nently possible over the 

 greater part of that 

 country which is well 

 fitted for settlement ; 

 nor anywhere, if the 

 herds grow too numer- 

 ous. It would be not 

 merely silly, but worse 

 than silly, to try to stop 

 all killing of elephants. 

 The unchecked increase 

 of any big and formi- 

 dable wild beast, even 

 though not a flesh-eater, 

 is incompatible with the 

 existence of man when 

 he has emerged from 

 the stage of lowest sav- 

 agery. This is not a matter of theory, but of proved fact. 

 In place after place in Africa where protection has been ex- 

 tended to hippopotamus or buffalo, rhinoceros or elephant, 

 it has been found necessary to withdraw it because the pro- 

 tected animals did such damage to property, or became such 

 menaces to human life. Among all four species cows with 

 calves often attack men without provocation, and old bulls 

 are at any time likely to become infected by a spirit of 

 wanton and ferocious mischief and apt to become man- 



19 



Elephant trail in bamboo 

 From a photograph by J. Aldcn Loring 



