162 ON SAFARI 



their trunks — nothing could have saved us. Picking 

 out three bulls from among forty beasts necessarily 

 involves risk. 



The day's bag thus totalled — 

 4 elephants, 

 1 rhinoceros. 

 Estimated dead- weight, 25 tons ; actual weight of 

 ivory brought into camp, 300 lbs. ; value, say, £200 

 sterling ! 



That afternoon and the following day we spent in 

 measuring and photographing our prizes. Of the four 

 elephants, one only admitted of accurate dimensions 

 being taken. This, by good luck, w^as the biggest bull 

 of all, which lay fully extended on his broadside — the 

 other three having fallen either upright or in such 

 positions in the bog, with legs bent or buried beneath 

 them, that measurements were impossible. 



The following figures, taken conjointly with the 

 photographs herein reproduced, should serve to give 

 some idea of the size of this giant of the modern world. 



It should be added that an elephant measuring 

 11 ft. at withers will probably stand 12 ft., or possibly 

 13, in front, when aroused and with head erect, as those 

 two stood before me to-day. Their huge ears, in ad- 

 dition, each spreading out near 4 ft. laterally, give the 

 elephant an apparent width of, say, 10 ft., by a height 

 of 13 ft. ! See frontispiece. 



The tusks of my monster bull were a beautifully 

 symmetrical pair, the longer measuring 7 ft. 1 in., by 

 17|- ins. in girth. They weighed 137 lbs. the pair. 



