CHAPTER XV 



ON ELEPHANTS ; ALSO AN ADVENTURE WITH A CROCODILE 



" At first — in other worlds, it seemed — the wilderness was free, 

 A man vi'ght go where'er he dreamed, nor pause to pay the fee, 

 Out of the Herd jnight take his toll earned at the risk of death, 

 Wander afar beyond control, caressed by Nature's breath — • 

 The world was wide — the Herds were strong, and killing was no sin. 

 No Law but sportsmanship he knew — 7io Ring Fence hemmed him in." 



The Ring Fence. Verse I. 



AS I look back upon the ups and downs of my life in 

 Africa, which began twenty-three years ago, that part 

 of it spent in hunting elephants for a living stands 

 out more vividly than any other. The open-air life, the ever- 

 changing scene amidst the game-haunted solitudes, appealed 

 irresistibly to a, perhaps, too romantic temperament, and so 

 has stamped itself indelibly on my memory. 



My hunting trips in search of good ivory and rare animals 

 often took me to all kinds of out of the way places, bringing 

 many adventures, and after many years, an intimate acquaint- 

 ance with elephant folk about which I am now to write. These 

 expeditions have taken me into British and Portuguese Nyasa- 

 land, Portuguese Zambezia, late German East Africa (Tangan- 

 yika territory). Northern Rhodesia and the Congo forests. 



In my experience, as a hunting ground for elephants, 

 there is no region in Africa to-day to compare with the Ituri 

 forest, and the long-grass country to the south and north- 

 east of it. I believe the record tusks are yet to be obtained 

 in its vast and untrodden depths, a sufficient incentive indeed 

 for any big game hunter as the record now stands at 226J 

 pounds for a single tusk. 



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