A Colossal Elephant 259 



from a tree of the elephant's movements, because the 

 smoke would have prevented me seeing anything had 

 he charged. Each time the smoke clears away I fire 

 again. Thus I exhaust the whole of my stock (which 

 usually consists of ten 8 -bore cartridges), without the 

 elephant having moved or seemed even to notice 

 them. Taking my Express, I begin a fresh series, 

 when at the first shot the elephant falls heavily, 

 crushing everything round it, knocking down trees 

 the tops of which almost fall on our heads, collapsing 

 with a great noise in the midst of lianas, branches, and 

 shattered trunks. 



We draw near, and I look upon the largest 

 elephant which I have ever killed. Its enormous 

 tusks protruded from its mouth 6 feet 2 inches, and 

 were 22^ inches in circumference at the juncture of 

 the flesh ; their total length was 8|- feet, and they 

 were both of exactly the same weight namely, 

 114|- pounds. As to its size : it was 12 feet 2|- inches 

 from its withers to the ground, carefully measured. 

 Once the ground was cleared, its height, lying on its 

 side, reached 5 feet 1 1 inches that is, a man of medium 

 size could not look over the top. 



I kept the skull, intending to bring it to Europe 

 with the tusks. Not less than eleven additional 

 carriers were required for this trophy : six to carry 

 the skull without the lower jaw-bone, when properly 

 cleaned and emptied ; two for each tusk, and one for 

 the lower jaw. Later, the difficulties of transport and 

 the lack of carriers for indispensable articles forced me 

 to abandon these cumbersome packages, and, much to 



