Appendix 291 



been seen from the example which I have given of an old 

 male assisted by females, elephants act together. 



I have often been asked if I have met with those 

 cemeteries where elephants are believed to collect to die. 

 No : never have I seen a vestige of them, and I do not 

 believe in their existence. 1 What has given birth to this 

 idea is the fact that nowhere are elephants' bones to be 

 found. But there is a very simple explanation for this. 

 These bones are very spongy and soft; instead of being 

 hollow and filled with marrow, like those of other animals, 

 they are homogeneous and porous, composed of an infinity 

 of hollow and longitudinal cells, in which the marrow flows 

 in the form of liquid. As already stated, the ribs can be 

 broken without the assistance of a hatchet, simply with 

 the hands. It is probable, therefore, that the bones crumble 

 away into dust, and are scattered to the four winds in three 

 or four years' time. The skull, which is thicker and harder, 

 lasts longer when the hyenas spare it. I have met with a 

 few in the bush. 



Bones of other animals, on the contrary, remain intact a 

 long time. In Mes Grandes Chasses (p. 317) I mention 

 one of my camps where I saw from my tent a passing lion. 

 Going by the same place in 1896, that is, four years 

 afterwards, I found the bones of animals which I had killed 

 there, including those of the lion in question, some reed- 

 bucks, water-bucks, zebras, etc. These four years of in- 

 temperate weather had not changed them in the least : 

 hardly had it whitened them. 



Only the tusks can resist the weather ; but if a passer- 

 by sees them he takes them. Dead ivory, which is seen in 

 the market, has been found in that way ; its dull appearance, 

 the reduction in its weight, and its colour indicate that it 

 has been long exposed to the inclemencies of the weather. 



1 I may even say that they do not exist. Formerly the blacks 

 killed entire herds of elephants and perhaps the bones left by them 

 have been mistaken for " cemeteries." 



