ELEPHANTS. 



55 1 



four hundred elephants standing drowsily in the shade of the detached clumps of 

 mimosa-trees. Such a sight I had never seen before, and never saw again. As 

 far as the eye could reach, in a fairly open country, there was nothing but 

 elephants. I do not mean in joined masses, but in small separate groups. Lying 

 on the pony's neck, I wormed in and out, looking for the bulls whose ' spoor ' we 

 had been following, and while doing so was charged by a very tall, long-legged, 

 ugly beast, who would take no denial, and I was obliged to kill him." 



pace It has already been stated that the maximum pace of the Indian 



elephant is estimated at about fifteen miles an hour; but this can 

 only be maintained for a couple of hundred yards or so, after which the rate 

 sinks to eight or six miles an hour. On the other hand, Sir Samuel Baker is of 

 opinion that the African elephant might be able to maintain the maximum pace of 

 fifteen miles an hour for a hundred yards longer than its Asiatic cousin, and that 

 it would settle down to a pace of ten miles an hour, which could be kept up for at 

 least that period of time. The relatively longer limbs and stride of the African 

 species fully bear out this view as to its speedier movements. 



The sense of scent appears to be very strongly developed in this 



species, inasmuch as it can discover the presence of a human being at 

 an immense distance when the wind is favourable. As soon as an elephant scents 

 a man, it starts oft' at once at a rapid pace, which will be maintained sometimes for 

 hours; and since in most parts of Africa the wind is constantly veering, this 

 constitutes one of the great difficulties in elephant-stalking. On the other hand, 

 the sight of these animals is most defective; and it does not appear that their 

 hearing is particularly good. On account of these deficiencies, it is possible to 

 approach a wild African elephant from the leeward to within a very short distance ; 

 and we have been informed, on good authority, that a hunter once wagered that he 

 would write his initials on the hind-quarters of one of these animals while alive, 

 and that he actually succeeded in doing so. 



It is somewhat curious that the natives of Africa display no 



aptitude for the domestication of the wild animals of their country, 

 in which respect they stand in marked contrast to the Malays and other Eastern 

 nations. In the later ages of Rome, as shown on coins, the African elephant was 

 tamed and exhibited in the arena ; and these animals are commonly stated to have 

 been employed by the Carthaginians in the Punic wars (B.C. 264-216), no less than 

 thirty- seven of them accompanying Hannibal's army across the Alps. On this 

 point, however, Oswell writes as follows : " I believe some people suppose the 

 Carthaginians tamed and used the African elephants ; they could hardly have had 

 mahouts, Indian fashion, for there is no marked depression in the nape of the neck 

 for a seat, and the hemming of the ears, when erected, would have half smothered 

 them. My knowledge does not allow me to raise any argument on this point ; but 

 might not the same market have been open to the dwellers at Carthage, as was 

 afterwards to Mithridates, who, I suppose, drew his supply from India, where they 

 have been broken and made to do man's work from time immemorial." In a note 

 he adds that " I know in the representations on the medals of Faustina and of 

 Septimius Severus the ears are African, though the bodies and heads are Indian ; 

 but these were struck nearly four hundred years after Carthaginian times, when 



