296 THROUGH SOMALILAND AND ABYSSINIA CHAP. 
has been very rapid, and nearly all the herds have retired to 
the mountainous country in which the Tug Fafan takes its rise, 
although a few still come down annually into the Gadabursi 
country. In 1884 elephants were shot at Dalaat and Digwein, 
places near Mandeira in the interior plain north of Gdélis; but 
since that year I have never heard of them anywhere in this 
plain. In 1887 I had to ascend to Wagar before finding any, 
and since then they have retired from Wagar and Gdlis altogether, 
and are now, I believe, never found east of Hargeisa, unless we 
except herds which wander eastward into the far interior of 
Ogadén from the western valleys of the Harar highlands. 
The reason that elephants have been driven away to such an 
extent is that sportsmen have not been satisfied with the death 
of a bull or two here and there, but have slaughtered large 
numbers of cows. In the first excitement of elepbant-shooting 
it is conceivable that a sportsman may shoot two or three cows 
as well as bulls, as I have done; but there is no reason, except 
the temptation afforded by exciting sport, why large numbers 
of elephants of both sexes should be destroyed in Somaliland. 
They do no harm to the few plots of cultivation scattered at wide 
intervals, and very few Somalis will eat their flesh. Though 
the elephants themselves are of the average size, this mountain 
ivory is probably as small as any to be found in Africa, sixty 
pounds being a good weight for a pair of tusks, though greater 
weights have been recorded in exceptional cases. 
I believe the question of the desirability of training and 
using the African elephants for transport is one which will 
become more important as Africa is opened up. Provided 
something could be done to stop the wholesale slaughter of 
elephants by English sportsmen, there is a probability that the 
Somali Protectorate would become restocked, for in the chaos 
of rugged gorges which descend abruptly from the Harar 
highlands into Ogddén there are still plenty. I do not think 
that a moderate amount of elephant-shooting, properly regulated, 
does much harm, but the herds are certain to leave places where 
they have been hunted without respite season after season, and 
large numbers slaughtered. 
In the Gélis Range there are many of the old elephant-paths 
existing, but bones are seldom found; and the Somalis have a 
theory to account for this. In 1886 I went to Digwein, where 
an officer had shot a bull elephant two years before, and I was 
shown the exact spot where it had been killed; and rummaging 
