ELEPHANT HERDS 
to a height of twenty feet).... Our camp was pitched on the top of a small 
hill that jutted out from the main wall of the valley, and consequently we 
enjoyed an uninterrupted view across and up and down the river.... Our 
tents were barely pitched when we saw an enormous bull elephant emerge 
from the papyrus, and come gliding across the open country to reach the 
welcome shade of the trees in a gorge to our right. Then two more big 
bulls appeared, and followed majestically in his wake. They had not gone 
far when the wall of papyrus behind them shuddered, staggered, and col- 
lapsed, while a ceaseless stream of elephants, big and little, stately and 
skittish, burst upon our astonished gaze. On they came, a herd of fully 
two hundred, the bulls in front straggling in twos and threes, then a solid 
phalanx of cows, out of which from time to time little fellows not more than 
.three feet high ran bewildered, then, steadied by the shrill trumpet of their 
mammas, scurried back. The mass seemed to glide over the country like 
an avalanche, raising a great trailing cloud of red dust that dimmed the 
outlines and gave the impression of some hateful tide soaking up the land. 
Great clumps of bushes, acres of elephant grass, loomed up in front, swayed, 
and were no more. 
“On it swept, this wondrous mass of life, nearer and nearer, till great 
ivories glinted white in the red-gray wave; and yet never a sound except 
the screech of a circling kite, and the occasional ludicrous trumpeting of 
an anxious mamma. Our camp was too high, and the motion of the ele- 
phant is peculiarly noiseless. As we watched, another herd of thirty 
emerged from the papyrus, then another herd, and yet another one hundred 
strong, till the whole valley seemed to be streaked with elephants. Ye 
gods! it was a wonderful sight. 
“The tusks of the Toro elephants are enormous; I myself secured one 
weighing 1383 pounds, from Kasagama, the king of Toro. Many heavier 
ones have gone out of the country through the Swahili traders. The heavi- 
est that I shot myself scaled 98 pounds (dry), and others scaled 86, 85, 87, 
78, 78, 69, 69, all of which would be considered unusually large in South 
Africa.” 
It may be mentioned that, according to Lankester 1 the heaviest Afri- 
can tusk on record is one in the British Museum, ten feet two inches long 
along the outer curvature, and weighing 228 pounds; a tusk of 150 pounds 
is considered very large. 
399 
