THE AFRICAN ELEPHANT 



denuded of their bark by Elephants. The bark is 

 sweet, and the Elephants feed on it. They peel 

 it off with the finger-Hke elongations at the end 

 of the trunk. With this wonderfully mobile and 

 sensitive apparatus the Elephant is able to denude 

 a tree of its fruit. I have seen trees in the Addo 

 Bush covered with small berries, and the follow- 

 ing morning the berries were all gone, and the 

 ground around showed Elephant spoor and steaming 

 dung. It was evident the Elephants had picked 

 off the berries during the night or in the early 

 morning. 



The fellow-feeling, loyalty and attachment of 

 Elephants for one another is very touching, and we 

 could with advantage learn a good deal from them 

 in this respect. 



One day a cow Elephant was shot in the Addo 

 Bush. The horde of coloured folk, who gathered 

 like vultures, carried off the flesh, and the skin was 

 dragged by two horses to a farm some miles distant. 

 The bull, under cover of darkness, returned to seek 

 his missing mate, and followed the spoor right up 

 to the homestead. Judging by the trampled earth 

 and vegetation, the poor, sorrow-stricken fellow must 

 have loitered about for hours, loth to leave the spot. 

 Realising eventually that she was dead, he wended 

 his way sorrowfully back to the herd to impart the 

 sad news. 



The Addo Elephants flee in terror, as a rule,from 

 a European, but a Kafir they despise, having learned 



265 



