3 o Great and Small Game of Africa 



indiscriminately. This has very rightly been put a stop to by the Aden 

 authorities. 



The Somali elephant is a mountain animal, and although the bull 

 attains a height, when full-grown, of about 10 feet 6 inches at the 

 shoulder, the tusks are small when compared with those exported from the 

 East African coast and from the marshes of the Zambesi. From 35 lbs. to 

 70 lbs. a pair, and a length of 4 to 5 feet for each tusk, would be about the 

 average measurements, though very much larger tusks have occasionally 

 been obtained. 



The sport of elephant hunting is probably more exciting than any other 

 afforded by the rifle. The overwhelming size of a bull elephant, his 

 magnificent appearance when angry, with his trunk coiled up and his ears 

 thrown forward like sails, and the speed and ease with which he bears 

 down the thickest jungle, make his charge a thing to be remembered, far 

 more trying to the nerves of the sportsman than that of any other animal. 

 The appearance of a lion when charging, below the line of sight of a man, 

 and easily stopped by comparatively light metal, cannot be compared to 

 it for scenic effect. 



Elephants are generally hunted in the daytime, a sport which it is 

 proposed to fully describe. But sport of a very interesting kind can be also 

 had by watching a pool on moonlight nights, when in the dry " jilal " season 

 water is scarce, pools are few and far between, and the game visit the same 

 pool night after night. There are pools of this description in the elephant 

 ground at the sources of the Webbi, on the Galla frontier ; and Gordon- 

 Cumming's book on South African shooting will give full details of the 

 method. 



Elephants can be hunted in the daytime — the most usual form of sport 

 — either on horseback or on foot. The watering-places they frequent are 

 visited in the early mornings, and if fresh tracks are found, showing that 

 elephants have been there the night before, they are followed up to the 



