CREATURES OF THE WILDERNESS 59 



safety of his own skin before every other con- 

 sideration. When a herd gallops out of 

 danger, the bulls manfully lead the way, leav- 

 ing the rest of the family to do as best they 

 can. Yet even in this sauve qui peut the 

 females never desert their calves. In fairness 

 to the males, we should perhaps admit that 

 they may realise, either from experience or by 

 hearsay (who knows, after all, what tales they 

 may tell each other?), that they, and not their 

 wives or children, are the chief object of the 

 sportsman, though ivory-hunters in Africa 

 make little or no difference between them, 

 shooting all and sundry with marketable tusks. 

 The daily life of a herd of elephants varies 

 according to the season of the year. In the 

 rains I speak, of course, of the Indian ele- 

 phantthey climb into the hills, glad to get 

 out of the valleys, which are then alive with 

 flies. They are always on the move, be the 

 weather wet or dry, for it will easily be realised 

 that creatures of such immense size and such 

 hearty appetite soon exhaust the food supply, 

 and in order to get sufficient juicy grasses, 

 tender stems of young bamboo, and wild plan- 

 tains to stay their hunger, they must travel 

 far, crashing their way through the jungle, 

 ripping off great strips of bark with their 

 tusks, digging up trees by the roots, trampling 

 down shrubs, spreading havoc and ruin in the 



