CHAPTER XI 



NINE DAYS WITHOUT SEEING AN ELEPHANT. THE 



ROOSEVELT PARTY DEPARTS AND WE MARCH FOR 



THE MOUNTAINS ON OUR BIG ELEPHANT 



HUNT. THE POLICEMAN OF THE PLAINS 



THE Mount Elgon elephants have a very bad repu- 

 tation. The district is remote from government 

 protection and for years the herds have been the 

 prey of Swahili and Arab ivory hunters, as well as 

 poachers of all sorts who have come over the 

 Uganda border or down from the savage Turkana 

 and Suk countries on the north. As a natural con- 

 sequence of this unrestricted poaching the herds 

 have been hunted and harassed so much that most 

 of the large bull elephants with big ivory have been 

 killed, leaving for the greater part big herds of 

 cows and young elephants made savage and vicious 

 by their persecution. Elephant hunters who have 

 conscientiously hunted the district bring in reports 

 of having seen herds of several hundred elephants, 

 most of which were cows and calves, and of having 

 seen no bulls of large size. 



The government game license permits the holder 

 to kill two elephants, the ivory of each to be at least 

 sixty pounds. This means a fairly large elephant 

 and may be either a bull or a cow. The cow ivory, 



183 



