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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



long and very stoutly built, may be the 

 little forest-haunting Eiberian hippopot- 

 amus. There are also stories of a large 

 antelope, with a few white spots or mark- 

 ings, which has very disproportionately 

 small horns in the male. 



There is a great deal of talk about a 

 huge manlike ape, but this apparently is 

 nothing more remarkable than the gorilla. 

 The range of the gorilla extends to within 

 a few days' journey of the Semliki River, 

 and specimens which have been killed 

 by natives and photographed by Belgian 

 officers (the photographs were shown 

 to me) are nothing but gorillas, so far as 

 I can judge. The hair of some of these 

 gorillas was quite gray on the head and 

 shoulders, no d^ubt from age. The leop- 

 ards in this forest are exceedingly 

 dreaded by the natives, and the stories 

 of their man-eating habits are innum- 

 erable. 



WILL THL AFRICAN ELEPHANT BECOME) 

 EXTINCT? 



The elephant inhabits these forests In 

 large numbers, but he appears to fre- 

 quent with equal relish the savannahs and 

 open grassy plains of the Semliki River 

 and at the south end of Ruwenzori. On 

 our return journey through the Congo 

 forests we halted at the edge of a pic- 

 turesque gorge, a small river. Though 

 but a small stream, it had in course of 

 time widened for itself a'profound gorge 

 that would be large enough for a Hud- 

 son and deep enough for a Colorado. 

 Gazing across this gorge one evening; 

 we saw an immense herd of elephants 

 coming toward us, seeming in the dis- 

 tance very black in color against the pale 

 straw-yellow of the dry, short grass of 

 the plains, but with white gleaming tusks, 

 each elephant looking extraordinarily 

 like the Eastern carvings of black ebony 

 elephants with ivory tusks that are to be 

 seen in every Chinese and Japanese col- 

 lection. When they reached the pre- 

 cipitous descent to the gorge, I thought 

 to see them turn back, but with great 

 ease they slid and scrambled down the 

 steep sides, rushing with shrill trumpet- 

 ings to the reed beds which marked the 

 invisible watercourse. 



We shot two males out of this great 

 herd, having permission to do so from 

 the Congo Free State authorities. When 

 the first rifle shots rang out, it was a 

 touching sight to see the baby elephants 

 run to their mothers (it was one of those 

 large mixed herds that one so often sees 

 with females and young accompanied by 

 young full-grown males), and the mother 

 separate her front legs as widely as pos- 

 sible to receive the little one under the 

 protection of her body, ceasing her fierce 

 trumpetings every few minutes to caress 

 the frightened little one with her trunk. 

 After the shots which laid low these ' 

 two young males, the frightened animals 

 in their panic tore up and down the 

 gorge through the dense vegetation, not, 

 however, attempting to charge us, though 

 at one time it seemed as though they 

 would run amuck through the camp. 

 These breeding males appear to be quite 

 young for elephants, say twenty to 

 thirty years old), with relatively small 

 (fifty-pound) tusks. 



So long as the British government can 

 determinedly enforce the game regula- 

 tions by a small annual expenditure, and 

 protect female and immature male ele- 

 phants from being killed by natives or 

 Europeans, there will not be much danger 

 of the African elephant becoming ex- 

 tinct in a territory so large as British 

 East Africa, where Nature has reserved 

 vast marshes and leagues of forest for 

 shelter of this beast. Provided the most 

 religious care — such care is effectual in 

 India — was taken of the females and 

 young, there is no reason why a certain 

 number of male elephants should not be 

 killed yearly by designated agents of the 

 government, and their ivory be sold to 

 merchants as part of the Protectorate 

 revenues. I see no reason whatever now 

 why the female African elephant should 

 not be tamed and used as a transport 

 animal. For this purpose it might 

 eventually prove advisable to import 

 trained Indian females, who might assist 

 in teaching the young captured Africans. 

 (See also page 242.) 



If after many years of trial the Afri- 

 can elephant is pronounced to be hope- 

 less as a domestic animal (and it should 



