1 2 Great and Small Game of Africa 



tormentor approaching, before a shot has been fired. Sometimes one will 

 come running out screaming loudly, with its trunk held high in the air, 

 on hearing a shot fired, but, after coming a very short distance, will 

 suddenly stop screaming, drop its trunk, and run back again to the herd. 

 When an elephant is vicious and inclined to charge, he holds his tail 

 straight up, and keeps cocking his ears, and looking from side to side for 

 his enemy, at the same time trying to get his scent with his raised trunk. 

 When standing wounded, too, if he thinks he sees his diminutive foe 

 approaching he raises his head and trunk and spreads his great ears ; and 

 should a movement, or a whiff of tainted air turn his suspicions to 

 certainty, will very likely charge forthwith, screaming like a railway 

 engine. Thus the African elephant, when he commences his charge, 

 often, perhaps usually, has his trunk raised aloft. Immediately, however, 

 he settles to a regular chase, he drops his trunk, holding it in front of his 

 chest, though not screwed up under his jaws after the manner of an 

 Indian elephant when charging. When charging, an African elephant, 

 especially a cow or young bull, comes on at a very great pace. Given a 

 few yards' start, a very active man might keep in front of one for 60 or 

 70 yards, but I do not think I shall be far wrong if I say that an 

 African elephant, when going at its utmost speed — that is when charging 

 — is capable of covering 120 yards in ten seconds. No matter how fast 

 an elephant runs, it never attempts any pace but a shuffling kind oi trot. 

 When alarmed, elephants do not run very far, but soon settle down to a 

 quick walk, known to South African hunters as " de long stap " — the long 

 step — which requires a man to run at a good jog-trot to keep up with. 

 This pace they can keep up without flagging for many miles. When 

 chased during very hot weather, either on horseback, or by good runners 

 on foot, elephants soon show signs of being distressed. They very soon 

 begin to put the ends of their trunks into their mouths, and after drawing 

 up a bucketful of water from their stomachs, proceed to squirt it over their 



