APPENDIX. 249 



Elephants are very fond of aloes, which they pull up and chew and then throw away again. 

 In the Enclave they often eat the small thorn-bushes growing on the hills by the Nile, which is 

 unusual in elephants, as in most places they do not eat the leaves of acacia-like thorns, though 

 they sometimes strip off the barks. In the same locality these animals are also very partial to a 

 bush, bearing a very pleasant edible berry about the size, shape, and colour of a black cherry, 

 called by the Alui, ashuga. 



Height. — There has always been considerable difference of opinion and much uncertainty as 

 regards the maximum height of African elephants, and there probably will always continue much 

 uncertainty on the point. 



Some people talk fluently of twelve-foot elephants, and others consider anything over eleven 

 feet at the shoulder to be abnormal. The reason why such uncertainty prevails is that a full- 

 grown African elephant has probably never been seen in Europe, and possibly never will be. 



When an elephant is killed he usually falls in one of two postures — either a kneeling 

 position (the result of a clean brain shot) or a lying position. Sometimes, however, he 

 falls in a crumpled-up sitting position, the result of a shot other than a brain shot. It is 

 obvious, then, that only in the lying position can an animal be measured for its height. In this 

 position the fore-legs are usually slightly bent, and then the united efforts of half-a-dozen men 

 are not sufficient to absolutely straighten a leg whilst a measurement is being taken. If such 

 measurement is not taken immediately after death, it will be found impossible to straighten out 

 this leg afterwards to secure even approximate measurements. 



There are, however, other difficulties attending the taking of such measurements, for 

 uprights have to be found at least five feet long, though six feet are better. The usual 

 articles used for this purpose are the spears of the local natives who have accompanied 

 you. These spears have to be arranged by eye, and to ensure that they are perpendicular 

 the grass must be cut back to the distance of about ten yards from the head of the 

 elephant so as to enable you to see them from that distance. Then the horizontal distance 

 between the spears must be taken, and as you cannot move the elephant, it is obvious that this 

 distance must be taken across the upper part of the uprights. You will have to judge by eye 

 if the string is horizontal, but this time you will not be able to step back to mark it from a 

 distance, for you will be holding one end of the string yourself and a raw savage will be holding 

 the other. If, then, in conjunction with such untrained assistance you succeed in taking 

 a measurement of the height of the elephant with only a matter of two inches of error, I consider 

 that you have done well. 



I do not know if other people have developed a better method of measurement, but, so far 

 as I can see, rough-and-ready methods are the only ones generally available. 



From the approximate measurements (as regards height) that I have taken, I can say that, 

 to the best of my belief, elephants of eleven feet four inches at the shoulder are not uncommon 

 both in Uganda and the Lado Enclave. Possibly such an animal as a twelve-foot elephant 

 does exist, but such an one would be abnormal. Many full-grown male elephants are only 

 eleven feet, and some even, with large tusks of, say, sixty pounds, may be found only ten feet, 

 or, at any rate, but a few inches over this measurement. The usual Zoo and menagerie elephants 

 are such pigmies compared to the full-grown African bulls that people who have only seen the 

 former would be inclined to think that eleven feet was an impossible size for an elephant. I 

 believe that Jumbo was ten feet seven inches. It is claimed that he could not have been a very 

 big elephant or he would not have been able to pass through the tunnel at the Zoo. Speaking 



K K 



