APPENDIX. 251 



beetles have already buried their balls of manure, they must have been at work for an hour 

 or two. 



Fresh spoor in grass shows a shininess on the grass not seen with old spoors. Old spoor in 

 grass can be told from fairly recent spoor by seeds on the crushed grass of the old spoor having 

 been arrested in their development, and so not showing so ripe as the seeds of the surrounding 

 grass. This observation is useful when on passing through a country you wish to know if 

 elephants have lately been in the vicinity, or have not been present for several weeks or a month. 



Where spoors cross, the fresher spoor can as a rule be told, by the overlapping of the 

 grasses. The spoor which has crushed down the top layer of grass is, of course, the more recent. 

 Where old spoors or elephant roads cross, matters sometimes become complicated. There may 

 be a layer of dead grasses pointing up one spoor, another layer crossing this from a second 

 track, and again a few fresh blades from the edge of the first path will be trampled across the 

 second again by a more recent elephant ; and perhaps over all these there will be one blade 

 crossing from the second spoor again, which will show the latter to be the most recent of all. 



Sometimes there will be an old track with its line of flattened dead grasses ; crossing this 

 will be a newer track flattening a layer of green grass across. An elephant then passing down 

 the old track would show few signs of having passed until it came to the green grass, which 

 would reveal signs of having been pushed a little on one side, and not laying dead straight 

 across the path. 



The above remarks refer to tracks crossing at right angles. With tracks overlapping, 

 converging, or joining, the same principles are observed, but the more recent tracks are more 

 difficult to tell merely by the overlapping of grasses, and are then generally told by observing which 

 track has disturbed or slightly brushed aside the grass of an older. 



Elephants, after rolling in a mud bath, or whilst climbing up a steep bank, often help them- 

 selves up with their tusks, and the approximate girths can often then be estimated from the 

 impresses on the ground. These impresses can also be seen at a salt-lick. 



Range of Vision. — It is rather difficult to tell exactly how far elephants can see. Sometimes 

 they appear unable to see anyone at a few yards, but that may be because they do not know 

 what man looks like. Their experience of him must as a rule, be confined to his scent and the 

 noise he makes, such as natives shouting, the cutting of trees, and the reports of rifles. 



On the other hand, upon certain occasions, I am convinced that I have been seen at thirty 

 yards and even fifty yards. If a hunter appeared against the skyline, such as on the top of an 

 ant-hill, they probably could see him at this latter distance — fifty yards. 



Range of Smell. — Elephants can smell human beings at enormous distances, the range 

 depending, of course, on the kind of breeze blowing and on the thickness of the country. 

 I believe elephants can smell human beings at a greater distance than any other animal, not 

 excepting buffalo. Under favourable conditions they can scent man at quite six hundred yards, 

 and probably much farther. 



As to scenting water or mud, I should not like to state how far away they are not able to 

 detect its presence, possibly many miles. 



Elephants, owing to the lengths of their noses and the power they possess of focussing a breeze 

 by extending their ears and flapping them forwards, are better equipped than any other animal 

 to catch a faint whiff of anything. They are generally found in country where the wind is very 

 treacherous ; but even allowing for this, there is no animal the pursuit of which leads to so many 

 disappointments, and no animal which so habitually detects by wind the presence of the hunter. 



