26 THE WILDERNESS AND JUNGLE 



as the Scandinavian elk, a greyish black deer 

 standing twenty hands and weighing 1500 Ibs., 

 is often exceedingly difficult to see in its native 

 pine-forests. The elephant of the African 

 cedar-forest fits its background so perfectly 

 that a sportsman has before now been known 

 to see nothing of one till he suddenly became 

 aware of its trunk waving gently almost over 

 his head. On one occasion, indeed, Sir Henry 

 himself, while hunting in an African water- 

 course, nearly sat on a sixteen-feet python. 

 "But," as he quaintly adds, "the African jungle 

 is full of surprises." 



Those who have never wandered in the 

 jungle, knowing it only in books of ad- 

 venture, picture it alive with animals that show 

 themselves at all hours. The truth is that 

 they are all in hiding, and can be seen only in 

 one of two ways, by either watching silently, 

 or by driving the forest with a host of beaters. 

 The latter, which is the more usual method 

 with those in a hurry, gives only a fleeting 

 glimpse of the jungle-folk under most unnatural 

 conditions, as they fly panic-stricken for their 

 lives. He who sits up at night in a machan 

 comes nearer to the truth. 



I remember such a daybreak, in the depth 

 of winter, in a Russian forest a hundred and 

 fifty miles from St. Petersburg. To reach this 

 outlandish spot, it had been necessary to drive 



