ELEPHANTS. 273 



harmless creature, that like the giraffe it is almost a sin to destroy. 

 I can only say that during eight years' experience in Ceylon 

 and nearly five years in Africa I have found that elephants are 

 the most formidable animals with which a sportsman has to 

 contend. The African species is far more dangerous than the 

 Indian." Mr. Andersson, in a letter to a friend, which was pub- 

 lished in the Times in 1859, writes : "I have had some perilous 

 adventures with these animals (elephants), and I have been taught 

 some severe lessons, which I am not likely to forget, and if I have 

 not got a great deal of ivory, I have gained a great deal of 

 experience and some interesting insight into the natural history 

 of the African elephant. 



" The more I see of these stupendous animals the more I am 

 surprised. I should very much like to know the real strength of 

 a full-grown male ; it must be something almost incredible. 

 Nothing gives a person a better idea of their stupendous powers 

 than a day's walk through one of their favourite haunts. There 

 may be seen whole tracts of forest laid prostrate, and such trees 

 sometimes ! The trees, which are for the most part of a brittle 

 nature, are usually broken short off by the beasts ; but when they 

 meet with a tree that seems to them too tough to snap at once, 

 up it goes, root and all. If they can do this in mere play, or for 

 the sake of feeding on the branches, &c., of the prostrate trees, 

 what will they not effect in a paroxysm of rage ? " 



On one occasion he met a herd of these animals and fired at 

 one of them, upon which the troop charged at him ; but, for some 

 reason, they stopped short. " I felt very much inclined to take to 

 my heels," he remarks, " but a moment's reflection convinced me 

 that safety lay in keeping close ; and it was as well I did so, for in a 

 few moments the paterfamilias made an oblique rush through the 

 jungle with such force as actually to send a whole tree that he 

 had uprooted in his headlong course spinning in the air. A huge 

 branch remained fixed to one of his tusks. His head he carried 

 aloft ; his huge ears were spread to the full ; while with his trunk 

 he snuffed the air impatiently. In this position, when within less 

 than a dozen paces of me, he remained, I should say, about half 

 a minute. I think it was the most striking and thrilling sporting 



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