- foreing his way atong, or threading tortuous path 
~ ways which end in a cul-de-sac, can see nothing 
~ beyond the limit of the bushes on either hand, the 
" wily elephant, by reason of his superior height, 
can keep easy watch on his movements and bide 
_. his time for a rush if he is in a bellicose mood. 
THE NOTORIOUS ADDO BUSH. 
It is estimated that there are from 150 to 200 
ephants living in the bush. They are the last 
‘survivors of the great herds which once roamed 
the forests of the Cape. When their brethren re- 
treated north before the advance of the white 
man’s civilisation they alone of all the troops 
stood their ground, secure in the impenetrable cx- 
tent of thorn country lying some thirty miles from 
Algoa Bay. 
: Here they were able to defy the march ef 
civilisation, and here they remain to this day. 
Now and again white men enter the Bush at the 
_ tisk of encountering a swift and terrible death, 
and lay one of the mammoths low. And now and 
_ again the elephants reverse the order and shock- 
_ ing tragedies are enacted in which the man figures 
_ as the victim. These latter events have made the 
' Addo Bush notorious; so much so that few will 
_ enter it, notwithstanding the teeming game with- 
- im its heart. Its quality is best gauged from the 
_ temark of that greatest of hunters, the late Frede- 
" ick Courteney Selous, after he had spent a day 
" ‘Struggling through the fearful barriers it pre- 
|" sents toconfound the hunter. ‘“ When I go hunt- 
ing,” he said, “I like the odds to be on the side 
' of the game.” And he went on to say that the 
_ man who went hunting there for pleasure was 
tired of life. 
; It is not known how many natives have been 
done to death by these elephants, but in recent 
_ years at least three Europeans have lost their lives 
" at their hands. In only one case was the man 
actually hunting the elephants. This was the late 
' Mr. Attrill, whose farm encroached on the Bush, 
» and who had suffered greatly through the depre- 
_ dations of the huge animals. One day he arranged 
_ with two friends to form an expedition and enter 
_ the Bush for the purpose of driving the herd from 
that paticular locality. Starting early, they had 
downed a bull elephant by eight o’clock in the 
_ morning. 
A FATAL OVERSIGHT. 
a Later, Attrill followed a wounded cow and 
was suddenly confronted by the enraged brute in 
_ full charge. Taking quick aim, he pulled the 
_ trigger, but he had forgotten to release the safety 
_ €atch, and in another moment he was im the grip 
ef the animal’s trunk, and had been dashed sense- 
less to the ground. His end was horrible in the 
HAMLYN’S MENAGERIE MAGAZINE. 67 
extreme, the infuriated cow literally treading him 
into the earth. 
In the other two cases where Europeans lost 
their lives they were not hunting the beasts, but 
were caught unawares by rogue bulls and wantonly 
crushed to death. Other men have had wonderful 
escapes. There is no more famous Addo hunter 
than Nat Harvey, and even he has on more than 
one occasion nearly paid for his intrepidity with his 
life. One such experience was when on a certain 
day he passed around a thick bush to find himself 
face to face with an elephant. There were not 
many yards separating them, and the mammoth 
charged on the instant. When Nat Harvey pulled 
the trigger, but seven yards stood between him and 
death. His shot went true, but the tremendous 
momentum of the onrushing beast carried it on. 
A portion of its head struck the huster and flung 
him dazed to earth. When he recovered his scat= 
tered wits he found himself lying at the side of 
his prostrate victim. 
FOR AND. AGAINST EXTERMINATION 
These incidents give some indications of the 
terrors awaiting the unwary hunter in the fast- 
nesses of the Addo Bush. And, because of them, 
and of the enormous damage done on the sur- 
rounding farms by the elephants, it has bees de- 
creed that the elephants be exterminated. They 
cause damage in two ways. An elephant is above 
such trifles as a wire fence. Hence, when in his 
promiscuous travels he happens upon one, he 
tears up the posts and flings the wire to one side. 
One farmer alone estimates that he has been 
obliged to replace 250 miles of destroyed fescing, 
and he avers that lately the animals have taken 
to digging his anchor posts up by the roots. 
The more serious source of damage occurs in 
the dry season, when the water holes within the 
Bush which usually supply the elephants with 
drinking water fail. It is then their custom to 
wander at large in search of water. Long custom 
has given them a knowledge of every dam on 
every farm. Thus, a herd numbering, perhaps, 
seventy animals, will descend on a farm at night, 
wreck all the fencing en route, and completely 
empty the only dam om which the farmer’s cattle 
can rely for drink to see them through the drought 
The result is that his cattle die of thirst, and he 
suffers grievous losses. 
There is, of course, a great deal to be said 
from both a scientific and sentimeintal point of 
view in favour of preserving at least a portion 
of the elephants. The great difficulty is to con- 
fine the beasts withis a restricted area. The Pro- 
vincial Government could not afford to enclose the 
whole Bush, and even were that possible the 
scarcity of water woull militate against it. But 
naturalists and others will be interested to Jearn 
