NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



Elephant was within a few yards, he would shoot it 

 through the brain. One day, when gliding swiftly 

 through the bush following the spoor of a Bushbuck, 

 he collided with a sleeping cow Elephant. With a 

 scream of rage she charged. Crick dived between 

 her legs and was off like a hare. By dodging, 

 doubling and making away down-wind he baffled her 

 and escaped. Rather early one evening he shot an 

 Elephant bull. The great beast came down to a 

 sitting posture with the head on the ground. Think- 

 ing it was hors-de-combat he walked up to it. The 

 Elephant rose and charged. Crick, quick as thought, 

 shot upwards and dodged round its body to the rear. 

 The bullet had entered the brain, and the Elephant 

 fell dead. 



When riding through parts of the Addo Bush I have 

 seen miles of fencing destroyed by the Elephants. 

 They smash it down to enable the calves to proceed. 

 Sometimes the poles are pulled up or smashed in 

 pure wantonness, the beasts resenting this encroach- 

 ment on the land they have always regarded as 

 their own. When a fencing post is too strongly 

 embedded in the ground to pull up, the biggest bull 

 puts one of his fore-feet on it and pushes, with the 

 result that the pole invariably snaps in two. Riding 

 along a newly-erected fence for a distance of five 

 miles, it was noticed to be trodden fiat every here 

 and there for distances ranging from 50 to 500 yards 

 at a stretch. 



I noticed numbers of trees which had been 

 264 



