THE ELEPHANT 265 



compare with the feat accomplished by three Boers. 

 Coming up with a troop of a hundred and four Elephants, 

 they caused the animals to stampede into a marsh, where 

 their heavy bodies became helplessly bogged. During the 

 day every animal was slain, a piece of wanton destruction 

 in which neither females nor calves were spared. 



Towards the close of the year 1908 news reached Eng- 

 land that eight thousand Elephants had been rounded up 

 in the Lado region by hunters, who were shooting the 

 males ; and that at Entebbe two hunters had obtained 

 5,000 worth of ivory in a four months' trip. Mr. Selous 

 promptly ridiculed the report, stating that the largest known 

 herds of Elephants only reached four hundred, and even 

 that number was exceedingly rare. Ivory-hunters, too, were 

 little likely to prefer bull tusks, which realise about twelve 

 shillings a pound, to cow tusks, which fetch very nearly 

 twice as much. The famous hunter declared that the 

 Elephant is no more likely to become extinct in Africa 

 than is the giraffe. 



Within the last dozen years hunting prospects have 

 undergone a great change in Africa and many other 

 regions, notably India and North America. Laws have 

 been enacted for the preservation of big game that are 

 calculated to save many different species from the 

 extermination that was rapidly overtaking them. In East 

 Africa, Uganda, and elsewhere the hunter has to pay a 

 license of ^50, and even then his season's bag is limited to 

 two bull elephants, two rhinoceroses, and a certain number 

 of antelopes. In Burma the shooting of Elephants is very 

 strictly regulated. Marauding 'rogues' are not protected, 

 and may be shot on sight ; but for shooting an Elephant 

 of good character, or against whom, in the language of the 

 police court, there are no previous convictions, a fine of 

 five hundred rupees is imposed. 



But the real danger of extinction comes from the native 

 rather than the white man. Armed with a gun, the black 

 man in Africa is daily and hourly stealthily hunting, with a 

 patience that seldom fails to be rewarded ; and in wild and 

 thinly populated regions the game laws are exceedingly 

 difficult to enforce. 



