THE ELEPHANT 39 



of the Lualaba River, or about 200 miles west of 

 the middle shores of Lake Tanganyika, and whose 

 distance was the coast at either Cabinda on the 

 one hand, or Bagamoyo on the other, you would 

 find that the whole of the immense space confined 

 within its Umits was stiU, more or less, the haunt 

 of the African elephant; whilst beyond it, in 

 French West Africa, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and 

 many other immense territories from the Gambia 

 to the Congo, as well as in Southern Abyssinia 

 and the Nile Valley, these animals continue to 

 exist in vast numbers. 



In Zambezia itself they are found all through 

 the dense forests surrounding Mount Chiperoni, 

 and extending thence northward to the Mozam- 

 bique district, and eastward through Boror to 

 Quehmane. To some extent, although they have 

 been much slaughtered of late years, they stiU 

 exist in the district of Luabo, to the south of 

 the Zambezi delta, in the Shupanga Forest, and 

 in the high wooded fastnesses of the low range of 

 Cheringoma. It is, however, a curious fact that 

 the elephants to the south of the Zambezi seldom 

 or never possess ivory of the size and weight carried 

 by members of the herds found in the Xyasaland 

 Protectorate, in North-Eastern Rhodesia, and 

 on the head waters of the Congo and the Nile. I 

 suppose the real reason for this is to be sought in 

 the much lengthier interval during which the 

 Zambezi region has been the scene of European 

 occupation, and the consequently longer period 

 wherein the herds have been eagerly scanned for 

 the heaviest and therefore most valuable ivory. 



