CHAPTER XVI 



BIG GAME AND BIG GAME HUNTING 



GENERALLY speaking, throughout Africa, the best 

 time for hunting, especially elephant hunting, is 

 towards the end of the dry season, and when the 

 early rains have begun. In German and Portuguese 

 East Africa, where I have spent most of my hunting 

 days, this period extends from September to the 

 end of January. I have always shot more elephants, 

 in the four months, September, October, November, 

 and December, than in the remaining eight months 

 put together, although I shoot steadily all the year 

 round. Various causes conduce to this result. In 

 the first place, most of the small pools and tributary 

 streams are dry, and water can only be obtained at 

 main streams and odd water-holes, so that elephants, 

 who during the previous months roam all over the 

 country, now perforce congregate within these 

 areas ; also, the heat being more intense during the 

 four months above mentioned, the quarry tires 



