A FRESHLY DUG liLEPIlANT PIT 



The top will be covered with cross sticks and concealed by earth loosely thrown over the 

 sticks. The nnwary elephant crashes through this cover, its great feet are wedged in at the 

 bottom of the pit and it suffers a lingering death. An elephant pit is usually 9 feet deep, is 

 large at the top (3 to 4 feet wide and to to t2 feet long), but tapers to a width of only 6 to 

 12 inches at the bottom. Pits are often made in groups of three, one in the trail and one a 

 few yards at either side. 



nia for tlie purpose of making studies 

 for the setting of the elephant group. 



The forests of the southern slopes of 

 iNIount Kenia are inhabited by forest ele- 

 phants, who seldom if ever leave them 

 except to make short night excursions 

 into the gardens of the Wakikuyu na- 

 tives. Wishing to learn something defi- 

 nite in regard to the limits of their range 

 on the mountain, we made the ascent 

 from the south through the timber and 

 bamboo belts onto the snow fields at the 



base of the pinnacle. We found that the 

 elephants regularly work up to timber- 

 line (i 2,000 feet), and we found com- 

 paratively fresh tracks in the sphagnum 

 marshes at 14,500 or more feet. 



THE CRIB OF A BABY FUvPHANT 



It was while on this excursion we 

 foimd the "maternity bed" of an ele- 

 phant, lender the protection of a great 

 mass of aerial roots and the foliage of a 

 great tree on the point of a densely for- 



798 



