1/0 MR. W. W. READE ON THE DERBYAN ELAND, [May 12, 



of guns were allowed in case of accidents. Accordingly I made an 

 arrangement with them that the first specimen they killed should be 

 sent to Sedhu, where my friend M. Rapet would buy it for me, and 

 send it on. Thus I obtained one specimen ; the others I purchased 

 at Macarthy's Island, Gambia. 



I made inquiries of these hunters of Nussera as to the habits of 

 the Derbyan Eland. They told me that the forest was its home ; 

 that it never of its own accord entered the plains ; that it never grazed, 

 but that the bull would tear down branches of trees for the does and 

 fawns to feed upon. 



A fawn, destined for le Jardin des Plantes, was once sent by M. 

 Rapet from the Casamanza, but it died at Goree. When I was at 

 Macarthy's Island, I saw a fawn of this Antelope which was in the 

 possession of an oificer of the 2nd West Indian Regiment ; it was 

 extremely tame, allowing itself to be caressed, and was so young 

 that it used to be fed on milk. 



2. The African Elephant {Elephas africanus). 



The most wonderful sight which I saw in Africa (at least in a 

 zoological point of view) was an Elephant -nghal, or enclosure. I had 

 just returned to the Gaboon settlements after a trip among the Fans, 

 when I heard that a hunting-party of these cannibals had enclosed 

 three Elephants in a nghal, or fence. I immediately went off in my 

 canoe, and slept that night at a village within a few miles of the 

 place. I walked over there the next morning. About twenty acres 

 of ground had been enclosed by what is called, in hunting parlance, 

 posts and railings. Round this fence at intervals were the huts of 

 the hunters. After I had paid the usual compliments to the chief, 

 and also the price of my admission to the menagerie with a few 

 strings of white beads, I said that I should like to see the Ele- 

 phants. The chief answered that the Elephants were asleep under 

 a large tree, which he pointed out to me. I wanted to crawl in and 

 have a look at them ; but they would not let me do that, fearing 

 that a white face would frighten the Elephants away, in which case 

 (so my interpreters informed me) I should be kept prisoner till I had 

 paid the value of the meat and the ivory. But they told me to have 

 patience ; for the Elephants would wake up in the afternoon. Pre- 

 sently a number of young men came running round, and took me to 

 a place where I could see one of the Elephants, a fine tusker, about 

 1 00 yards off. He was swinging himself on three legs and feeding, 

 sometimes helping himself to the leaves of the tree with his trunk. 



I asked how the Elephants were got into this fence and kept there. 

 The Fans replied that, having found that three Elephants frequented 

 that part of the forest (for these animals are not found in large herds 

 here as in South Africa), they had built the fence — which certainly 

 must have occupied them a considerable time. They left a gap (which 

 they had not even closed up, for they showed it me), and their me- 

 dicine-man made fetish for them to come in ; they came in ; then he 

 made fetish for them to stay, and they stayed. When the new 

 moon appeared, i. e. in about a fortnight's time, they would kill 



