NATURAL HISTORY 305 



The usual method of the Mobatti hunters is to attack 

 the elephants with spears from their canoes as the animals 

 cross the river. 



For some years past the Belgians have been training 

 young elephants, which are caught in the bush by native 

 hunters, for transport work in the Congo ; but as an elephant 

 cannot carry his full load till he is seven years old the business 

 is a slow one. Commandant La Plume, who is in charge 

 of the young elephants, has his headquarters at Api on the 

 Werre-Bili, and at the time of our arrival at Bambili in April 

 1906 the number amounted to twenty-eight. His method of 

 capturing them is to shoot the old male, and then as the 

 cow goes ofi with her young, a native jumps on to the back 

 of a baby elephant, separating it from the cow and driving 

 it ofi into the bush. 



The banks of the Kibah from Dungu, as far as the beginning 

 of the hilly country to the east of N'soro, is a veritable home 

 of the elephant, and the long grass is intersected by innumer- 

 able tracks. 



The close season in the Congo is from May 15 to October 

 15, and east of the 28th parallel no hunting whatever is 

 permitted throughout the year. 



About June ivory-traders, who are chiefly Greeks and 

 Indians, begin to come into the Congo, bringing with them 

 mules and donkeys with which to buy ivory from the chiefs 

 of the interior. For a mule they get eight to ten fair-sized 

 tusks. Within the last few years the State has placed several 

 restrictions upon the trader ; for instance, there is the 

 stamp regulation by which he is obhged to give up one of 

 every pair of tusks, while the other must receive the stamp 

 II V 



