78 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



eating up a district, and having to seek new feeding grounds. 

 With this object they frequently travel great distances fifty 

 miles or more in a night. This will not appear so remarkable 

 if it is considered that the bulls often stand fifteen miles from 

 the water, and walk to and fro in the hot nights without 

 missing, though during the colder season they are contented 

 with alternate nights. In India, where vegetation is rank 

 and the forests dense, elephants hold on to the same 

 locale. 



The ears of the African elephant are enormous six feet in 

 length, and broad in proportion, though I never measured the 

 breadth. The lower end just touches the point for the side shot. 

 I was once hunting these animals in the Ba-Quaina country, 

 and had killed three, when a tiny dark wreath on the horizon 

 warned us of a coming thunderstorm. A South African sky is 

 for nine months quite free of cloud ; for 300 out of the 365 days 

 of the year the sun rises as glowing copper, and sets as flaming 

 gold, without a framing of any sort. A happy thought struck 

 me : I ordered the Kafirs to cut off an ear from one of the 

 dead elephants, and, lying curled up beneath it, I escaped a 

 wet jacket, though the rain came down in waterspouts, and 

 I stood six feet. The scientists of the future may find occu- 

 pation for some time to come in developing the cause of ab- 

 normal ears, sloping backs, thorns at the ends of lions' tails, 

 and a number of other little peculiarities in beasts, birds, 

 insects and fishes ; but they ought not to delay, for many 

 types are already on the wane. 



The elephant's head is wonderfully constructed. If it were 

 great masses of bone and muscle, the ligaments of the neck 

 would need to be of extraordinary power to support it ; but 

 between the larger bones, and in all admissible parts of the 

 skull, the spaces are filled in with a cellular, bony structure, 

 fulfilling both requirements of strength and lightness. 



I believe some people suppose* the Carthaginians tamed 

 and used the African elephant ; they could hardly have had 

 Mahouts Indian fashion, for there is no marked depression in 



