252 THE GAME OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA. 



Hearing. — They are often credited with very bad hearing, but this is not quite correct. 

 They are very slow to hear anything before having been alarmed, but this results from many 

 reasons. Firstly, they are not on the alert and listening for strange sounds, and, moreover, are 

 making such a variety of sounds themselves, such as breaking branches, stamping on the ground to 

 loosen earth, flapping ears, rumbling stomachs, and blowing hard through the trunk, that any other 

 sounds are apt to pass unheard. When, however, they are once on the alert or get suspicious, 

 they stand perfectly still and silent, and then they are very quick at picking up sounds ; they are 

 remarkably quick at hearing the sound of a distant rifle, and for this reason elephant-hunters go 

 without meat rather than run the risk of disturbing elephants by shooting at other game. 



Once they have been alarmed, they stop all other noises and listen intently, and when they 

 stampede they stop at intervals and stand perfectly silent, listening. 



It is at this time that they are so dangerous, as anyone following rapidly on an 

 elephant's tracks will be heard, whereas the elephant itself, if in thick bush or grass, will 

 not be visible. The first warning the hunter often has that his quarry has stopped and is not still 

 stampeding, is to pass round a corner and suddenly find himself only a few yards away from his 

 animal, or, worse still, he hears an angry trumpet and the sound of a great body crashing towards 

 him from somewhere close by. 



Stomachic Rumblings. — Elephants seem to be able to stop these rumblings at will. 

 When you are close to a herd and suddenly all these sounds cease, you know that you have been 

 scented or heard, or at any rate that the animals are suspicious. However, they do not seem able 

 to hold them in indefinitely, and sometimes after they have been alarmed and whilst making off a 

 stomachic rumble will be heard. A wounded animal also will often make this sound, perhaps 

 when standing still unable to proceed, or about to fall. 



Size of Herds. — A herd generally consists of from ten to forty animals. A very large herd 

 usually consists of a number of herds of about twenty or thirty animals, each herd grazing apart, 

 and standing apart at midday. Occasionally, however, large numbers are seen moving as one 

 herd, and as many as two or more hundred elephants may be seen trekking in one compact mass 

 and also standing together in a mass. 



Salt-licks. — White-ant hills are generally used, the earth being removed by digging with 

 the tusks or kicking with the feet, and then it is eaten in lumps. Very occasionally a flat surface is 

 seen, having the appearance of having been licked with the tongue. Sometimes the overhanging 

 bank of a spring or of a watercourse is used, and these are occasionally excavated far back from 

 their original positions. The ground underneath them is pounded and trampled by many 

 elephants, and serves as a mud bath. Many of these places may be seen among the ravines and 

 watercourses of the Aberdares, especially near the sources. 



Elephant Paths. — Those to distant places generally go in a very straight line and do not 

 wind and twist about as do human paths. They are also broader than the latter. 



Whilst generally making his own path during a day's or a night's grazing, an elephant will, 

 as a rule, when trekking from one place to another, take an old path. In mountainous country 

 inhabited by elephants, almost every peak, however seemingly steep, every ridge, well-marked 

 spur, and col will be found to have an elephant road following its line of watershed. At the 

 highest parts of the Aberdares paths may be seen at an altitude of 13,000 feet. The highest 

 point of Kinangop is a steep-sided block of rock, perhaps 60 feet in height. Elephants, 

 apparently, have not succeeded in climbing this, but close underneath it, and running past is a 

 v/ell-defined path used by elephants and rhinos. What they do up there I cannot imagine, as 



