78 BIG GAME SHOOTING 
eating up a district, and having to seek new feeding grounds 
With this object they frequently travel great distances—fifty 
miles or more—in a night. This will not appear so remarkable 
if it is considered that the bulls often stand fifteen miles from 
the water, and walk to and fro in the hot nights without 
missing, though during the colder season they are contented 
with alternate nights. In India, where vegetation is rank 
and the forests dense, elephants hold on to the same 
locale. 
‘The ears of the African elephant are enormous —six feet in 
length, and broad in proportion, thcugh I never measured the 
breadth. The lower end just touches the point for the side shot. 
I was once hunting these animals in the Ba-Quaina country, 
and had killed three, when a tiny dark wreath on the horizon 
warned us of a coming thunderstorm. A South African sky is 
for nine months quite free of cloud ; for 300 out of the 365 days 
of the year the sun rises as glowing copper, and sets as flaming 
gold, without a framing of any sort. A happy thought struck 
me: I ordered the Kafirs to cut off an ear from one of the 
dead elephants, and, lying curled up beneath it, I escaped a 
wet jacket, though the rain came down in waterspouts, and 
I stood six feet. The scientists of the future may find occu- 
pation for some time to come in developing the cause of ab- 
normal ears, sloping backs, thorns at the ends of lions’ tails, 
and a number of other little peculiarities in beasts, birds, 
insects and fishes ; but they ought not to delay, for many 
types are already on the wane. 
The elephant’s head is wonderfully constructed. If it were 
great masses of bone and muscle, the ligaments of the neck 
would need to be of extraordinary power to support it ; but 
between the larger bones, and in all admissible parts of the 
skull, the spaces are filled in with a cellular, bony structure, 
fulfilling both requirements of strength and lightness. 
I believe some people suppose the Carthaginians tamed 
and used the African elephant ; they could hardly have had 
Mahouts Indian fashion, for there is no marked depression in 
