The Eastern Congo 



tall grasses at the country beyond. To the eye of the hunter 

 the sight that met my gaze was vastly interesting, for dotted 

 about the landscape in every direction were lines and bunches 

 of elephants, most of them at this early hour moving slowly 

 along feeding as they went. As I looked at the verdant 

 green of the greater part of this tract of country, the reason 

 for the presence of this great concourse of elephants became 

 apparent in the fact that large stretches of the old, dry grass 

 had been completely burnt off within the last two months, 

 a new and succulent crop having sprung up in its place. 

 This new grass stood about three feet high and its juicy 

 growth had attracted most if not all the elephants in the 

 neighbourhood. 



Apart from the value of their ivory and the exciting 

 sport of hunting them, elephants always interest me and I 

 have often stood by the hour watching these old-world animals 

 at their ponderous antics, to my great entertainment. One 

 time it might be they were taking a mud-bath in which they 

 rolled, becoming for the time being a species of mud-caked 

 saurian ; on another occasion they were perhaps in a dry 

 and waterless country, and would cool themselves by putting 

 the trunk down the throat and drawing off the water from 

 their stomachs, douching their backs with it ; then again 

 I have seen them taking an afternoon nap Ijang flat down 

 on the ground like pigs (this contrary to the tale one hears 

 of elephants never lying down to sleep), when a man may 

 go up and touch them and come to no harm if the wind be 

 right. I have, too, seen them butting one another in play, 

 fighting in earnest, and love-making in earnest too. What- 

 ever they are doing they are always worth watching and 

 I can imagine nothing more interesting than a full day spent 



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