62 TRAPPING WILD ANIMALS 
frightful, and we were all covered with bites. 1 
developed fever and went about so “groggy” that 
I was not at all sure of myself; but huge doses of 
quinine and the excitement of tracking so large a 
herd kept me going. 
The scouts reported that the herd numbered 
about one hundred. I assigned fifty men to sur- 
round the elephants and keep them moving in a 
circle within a definite area while we built the 
stockade. 
The work of making the trap was prodigious. 
Trees, twenty to twenty-five feet in length and a 
foot and a half in diameter, were cut down and 
dragged through the jungle for half a mile or more 
to the spot I had selected. These were planted five 
feet in the ground and braced by three smaller 
trees, so that they could stand the enormous pres- 
sure of elephants trying to lunge through them. 
The trap was round—about seventy-five feet in 
diameter—with two wings, each one hundred feet 
long, converging to the entrance. After planting 
and bracing all the posts, we bound them together 
with heavy ropes made of twisted rattan, and then 
covered them with vines and leaves. For all this 
work the natives had no tools except their par- 
angs. It was amazing to see the rapidity with 
which they cut down the big trees and slashed trails 
through the jungle. Omar and I were with them 
constantly, keeping up their enthusiasm and excite- 
ment. 
