362 ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA chai-. 



I did not stay long admiring this last prize after Juma had 

 cut off his tail. He had fine tusks, of fair length and thick ; 

 the thicker of the two measured i foot 8^ inches in circum- 

 ference just outside the lip. Then we went back to the 

 first two, which we had hardly glanced at yet. They 

 proved about as I had judged. The one with the whitest 

 ivory (the second killed) had teeth hardly as thick as the last, 

 but about on a par otherwise. The old fellow had very long 

 tusks, though slightly thinner than the others, the right a good 

 deal worn down, but his left the longest I had ever shot.^ He 

 had no hair on his tail : evidently a patriarch. Then I was 

 not sorry to make for camp — luckily not very far off — for I 

 was tired and sore, and the sun was extremely hot. I felt 

 very pleased with my morning's work. I had accomplished 

 it in what I considered a workmanlike manner ; not wasting 

 many cartridges nor letting my game go far after being struck, 

 and, above all, wounding none that escaped. The fourth 

 elephant I had no desire to harm. 



I had now killed five more bull elephants of the largest size, 

 whose ten heavy tusks would require as many of my best 

 porters to carry them — a good many more than I had " empty 

 hands," as the loads were at present arranged. It would there- 

 fore require a good deal of scheming and contriving to enable 

 us to take these ; and to take them I was determined. The 

 problem how to make two dozen porters carry thirty loads 

 would obviously have defied my mathematics, had it not been 

 for the fortunate circumstance that I had a number of spare 

 donkeys. Even thus it was not so simple as it may seem ; 

 for donkeys can only carry suitable loads and cannot possibly 

 bear large tusks ; moreover, pads, etc., are needed. However, 

 the difficulties were eventually overcome, so as to leave sufficient 



^ This tusk weighed 1175 lbs., and only lost i^ lbs. in drying. Its present weight is 

 thus 116 lbs. It measures exactly 9 feet. Its fellow weighed, when got out, 109 lbs. 

 Those of the other two weighed 117 lbs. and 104 lbs. ; and 96 lbs. and 95^ lbs. An 

 outline of the first is shown, together with others of my finest tusks, in the drawing, 

 p. 422. 



