The Elephant 3 



springs known as Umthlabahanyana, through which the old waggon 

 road from Bamangwato to Pandamatenka used to pass. These elephants 

 sometimes live together in one large herd and at others break up into 

 several parties. In 1 884 the entire troop must have numbered at least a 

 hundred, and amongst them there were four immense old bulls, none of 

 which, I believe, has yet been shot. Between the Chobi and the Zambesi 

 there used to be great numbers of elephants not many years ago, and a good 

 many probably still survive in that district. In South-East Africa I saw 

 the tracks of several large herds of elephants in 1891, in the country 

 between the Buzi and Pungwe rivers, and again in 1892 I came across 

 some of these animals between the Pungwe River and Lake Sungwe ; 

 I think therefore there must still be a good number of elephants wandering 

 about in the coast country between the Buzi River and the Lower Zambesi, 

 as, when I was at Sena in 1889, I was told by the Portuguese that there 

 were elephants in the forests to the south of that place. In the northern 

 parts of Rhodesia, amongst the hills and in the forests which lie between 

 the high plateaux and the Zambesi, there are still a good number of 

 elephants, especially in the dense wait-a-bit thorn jungles which lie to the 

 west of the Gwai River ; and in these vast areas of country, which can 

 never be inhabited by Europeans, I believe that elephants will continue to 

 roam for centuries yet to come, even without any special protection, as the 

 natives of Matabeleland and Mashunaland, if not completely disarmed, have 

 very little ammunition. In a country where all the big tuskers have 

 been shot, and the survivors rendered very wild and cunning, while at the 

 same time they have an enormous extent of country to roam over, it will 

 not pay a European to hunt them as a business. 



The average vertical standing height at the shoulder, fairly taken with 

 a tape-line, of the male elephant when full grown is, in Southern Africa, 

 from 10 feet to 10 feet 6 inches. This is somewhat less than the average 

 height of old bull elephants appears to be in the neighbourhood of Lake 



