24 Great and Small Game of Africa 



incomparable sensations of the forest— the effect produced on the mind by 

 these wild solitudes where the elephants have their home— be conveyed or 

 suggested to those who have never experienced such feelings ? To call up 

 that inexplicable, indefinable thrill is possible to such alone as have felt it— 

 who have the tracings hidden away in those mysterious cells of the brain 

 —and then only under the subtle influence of some conducive condition 

 associated in the mind with the circumstances. The secret of transmitting 

 it to others has yet to be discovered. 



I cannot see that the fact of ivory being valuable, and the death ot a 

 monster bull elephant meaning the acquisition of a pair of tusks worth 

 possibly £100, necessarily makes the pursuit of these animals a merely com- 

 mercial affair. That this sum is a matter of moment to the impecunious 

 hunter adds, on the contrary, a keen zest to the chase. The interest 

 of the quest is certainly enhanced by the value of its object. The poor 

 hunter who lives by his rifle may be as keen a sportsman as he to whom 

 money is no object, and who can have every luxury about him even in the 

 wilderness ; and I believe the former may get more enjoyment out of the 

 chase. 



Elephant hunting is no effeminate sport. It is, on the contrary, the 

 most arduous and exacting pursuit possible ; and, when persistently 

 followed up, entails a tremendous strain on the system. Out often long 

 before daybreak and perhaps not back to his gipsy camp with its frugal 

 fare till all hours of the night, " manet sub Jove torrido venator." 



That it is a pity to exterminate these interesting animals I freely 

 admit. By all means let sanctuaries be created and strictly preserved, and 

 let such other restrictions as may be necessary and can be enforced be enacted. 

 But it is useless to make regulations tending only to hamper a few indivi- 

 dual travellers, who can, if shooting loyally, only from their own shoulders, 

 do comparatively little harm in a vast country, while the door is left open 

 for the introduction of guns and ammunition which, when placed in the 



