o,., CASSELL'S POrULAE NATUEAL HISTOET. 



On the banks of the Fish River this animal abounds. Mr. Rose, who accompanied some elephant- 

 hunters in South Africa, was told, on good authority, that as many as three thousand in a troop had 

 been seen in that locality; indeed, the surrounding country appeared to have been the abode of 

 elephants for ages, the paths or beaten roads made by them intersecting it in all directions. 



Of one territory, comprising an irregular area of about two million acres, from which the Kaffirs 

 and Gonaquas were expelled, and which was resorted to by wild animals in considerable numbers, 

 Mr. Pringle gives the following highly graphic account : 



" The upper part of this extensive tract is an exceedingly wild and bewildering region, broken 

 into innumerable ravines, encumbered with rocks and precipices, and impenetrable woods and jungles ) 

 and surrounded on almost every side by lofty, and sterile mountains. During our first day's journey, 

 although we saw many herds of large game, such as quaggas, gnus, hartebeests, koodoos, with a variety 

 of smaller antelopes, there was no appearance of elephants ; but in the course of the second day, as 

 we pursued our route down the valley of the Koonap River, we became aware that a numerous troop 





THE ELEPHANT OF AFKICA. 



of these gigantic animals had recently preceded, as footprints of all dimensions, from eight to fifteen 

 inches in diameter, were everywhere visible ; and in the swampy spots on the banks of the river it was 

 evident that some of them had been luxuriously enjoying themselves, by rolling their unwieldy bulks 

 in the ooze and mud. 



" But it was in the groves and jungles that they had left the most striking proofs of their recent 

 presence and peculiar habits. In many places paths had been trodden through the midst of dense, 

 strong forests, otherwise impenetrable. They appeared to have opened these paths with great judgment, 

 always taking the best and straightest cut to the next open savanna, or ford of the river ; and in this 

 way they were of the greatest use to us, by pioneering our route through a most difficult and intricate 

 country, never yet traversed by a wheel-carnage, and great part of it, indeed, inaccessible even on 

 horseback, except for the aid of these powerful and sagacious animals. 



" In such places (as the Hottentots assured me) the great bull elephants always march in the van, 

 bursting through the jungle as a bullock would through a field of hops, treading down the thorny 

 brushwood, and breaking with his proboscis the larger branches that obstruct his passage ; the females 

 and younger part of the lierd follow in his wake in single file ; and in this manner a path is cleared 

 through the densest woods and forests, such as it would take the pioneers of an army nb small labour 



