56 After Big Game in Central Africa 



In the meantime we rest a little, afterwards looking 

 out for an encampment for the night. I choose a 

 place at the bottom of the vale under the trees and 

 near a stream, about fifty yards from the last elephant 

 which fell. We make an enclosure of thorns there, 

 and when the work is finished I go to measure and 

 photograph my elephants. 1 



My men ask to be allowed to take a little 

 meat ; but I object, because touching the animals 

 would mean that during the night all the carnivora 

 of the neighbourhood would be attracted, while, the 

 blood having been washed away, there is a great 

 likelihood that the bodies will not be smelt. My 

 men see my reasoning : so we content ourselves 

 with biltong, and pass a quiet night, of which we are 

 much in need. 



Bertrand arrives at the expected hour on the 

 following day, with the whole camp, and the work 

 of cutting up the animals begins ; half the men, 

 assisted by hunters, servants, and cooks, are em- 

 ployed therein, while the other half enlarges the camp 

 for the evening. 



As the elephant is lying on its side and the knives 

 with difficulty cut the skin of the body, the ear is 

 detached at the spot where it is tenderest. This 

 being done, the skin of the neck and belly are taken 

 off gradually with knives until the latter is uncovered. 

 Then they commence to disarticulate the fore and 

 hind limbs farthest away from the ground, eight men 



1 At the end of this work will be found a comparative table of 

 measurements of some elephants. 



