54 Wild Life in Central Africa. 



quite willing to take the trouble if it enhanced the value 

 of a head and brought them a pound or so extra. 



I was up before dawn on the morning of the lyth, and 

 Kamwendo took me to some maize-fields where the 

 elephants often came at night to eat the dried-up stalks. 

 All game are fond of maize and millet stalks, and they 

 come a long distance to feed on them, as well as invading 

 the growing crops, unless the natives sit up on stands 

 with a drum or old tin, which they beat at times all through 

 the night. 



We were very lucky, as we found the spoor of three 

 elephants, one a fine, big fellow, judging from the size of 

 his footprints. 



Again, I was much interested in noticing Kamwendo's 

 fine tracking,/ for he instinctively seemed to know where 

 the elephants would leave the garden, and he took me to 

 the bush, where we cut the spoor at once. 



Following a large bull elephant is the most exciting 

 sport there is in the world, for one has so many oppor- 

 tunities of seeing what such a beast is capable of. Trees 

 that seem unbreakable are sometimes broken and splintered, 

 and one marvels at such power, and perhaps a new hand 

 might feel a shiver go down his backbone when imagining 

 the grip of such a trunk being placed on his neck, or 

 thinking what would happen to his body if the mighty foot 

 was suddenly placed upon it. 



Yet, with all his immense strength, the elephant is a 

 wonderfully easy animal to kill, if one can only hit him 

 properly. Even a -256 Mannlicher will kill an elephant 

 most efficiently when in the hands of a good, cool shot. 



That six to seven tons of bone, flesh, and muscle should 

 drop to a projectile weighing I58grs. seems something like 

 a miracle, but it has been made possible by the ingenuity 

 of civilised man. More elephants have been shot in 

 Central Africa with 7-9 mm. Mausers than with any other 

 weapon, and the bullet only weighs 225grs. 



The largest bags of elephants which I have read of as 

 being made in one day were eighteen shot by Mr. Viljoen 



