292 After Big Game in Central Africa 



There are still many elephants in the Congo, in the 

 region of the Nile, Lake Chad, and Lake Victoria Nyanza ; 

 but they are tracked everywhere, and, besides some being 

 killed, many are wounded, which is worse than death to 

 them. Native hunters are very clumsy with firearms. 

 They always fire at the head, a shot which, as I shall 

 explain shortly, is of great difficulty, needing preliminary 

 study and precision which is not within the natives' 

 reach. Often, therefore, they simply wound the elephant 

 and make it furious, or else break its tusks. That is 

 the reason one finds so many broken or spoiled tusks. 

 In the Zambesi country I have never killed an elephant 

 which had not several native bullets in its body, or 

 did not bear traces of ancient or recent wounds. This 

 fact is noted in the table at the end. Sometimes these 

 wounds are full of matter and maggots, and must make 

 the unfortunate victim of so much clumsiness suffer 

 terribly. It is not astonishing that in this tortured 

 physical condition, and already knowing the effect of fire- 

 arms, an elephant immediately charges its aggressor. 



In the region of the lakes, such as the districts of 

 Moero, Bangweolo, and the Upper Luapula, where firearms 

 are not found so often, natives hunt the elephant with the 

 assagai. They also wound a great many without killing 

 one ; but these ravages are not to be compared with those 

 which were made by the armies of hunters of the Zambesi. 

 I say " which were made," for the reason that elephants 

 deserted these regions several years ago, and that native 

 hunters have had to find another calling. 



In the Congo that is, on the boundary of the 

 great forest natives construct traps. These consist of 

 pits, into which elephants sometimes fall. Another 

 method employed is to surround a herd by hastily 

 making a stockade and killing every one of them. 

 The pygmies shoot poisoned arrows at elephants, which 

 make off to a great distance to die a miserable death, and 



