26 AFRICAN NATURE NOTES CHAP. 



(Cornelis van Rooyen) near the Umfuli river in 

 Mashunaland. We were riding slowly along, fol- 

 lowed by some Kafirs, and driving a donkey carry- 

 ing corn for the horses in front of us, when we saw 

 what we took to be some boulders of black rock in 

 the open forest ahead, but some distance away, as 

 we were crossing an open valley at the time. In 

 this particular part of the country great boulders of 

 black rock were a common feature in the landscape. 

 Suddenly our donkey pricked his ears, and stretch- 

 ing out his nose, commenced to bray loudly. Im- 

 mediately one of the black rocks, as we had thought 

 them to be, moved, and we soon saw that what we 

 had taken for rocks were elephants. Our donkey 

 had smelt them before either my friend or myself 

 or any of our Kafirs had been able to distinguish 

 what they were. As, however, elephants are only 

 occasionally encountered in forests through which 

 great boulders of black rock are scattered, I do 

 not believe that these huge quadrupeds have been 

 moulded to the shape of rocks by the need of a 

 protective resemblance to inanimate objects, any 

 more than I think that the abnormal shape of 

 certain ant-heaps has had anything to do with the 

 production of the high wither and drooping hind- 

 quarters of the hartebeest. 



As to the theory that the long neck and the 

 peculiarly formed head of the giraffe have been 

 evolved in order to protect this remarkable animal 

 against its carnivorous foes, by giving it the appear- 

 ance of a dead or decayed tree, I personally consider 

 such an idea to be so fantastic and extravagant as to 

 be unworthy of serious consideration. 



In the course of my own hunting experience, I 

 have shot a great many giraffes to obtain a supply of 

 food for my native followers, and under the guidance 

 of Bushmen have followed on the tracks of many 

 herds of these animals until I at length sighted them. 



