^36 TRAVELS IN 
yellow fruit, when it was ripe, which in the 
country is called a cherry. 
When I had fufEciently examined their 
method of feeding, I fired at the head of the 
one neareft to me, which I killed ; and in lefs 
than ten minutes I in the like manner ex- 
tended the whole three on the ground *. 
We imagined that there were no more : but 
a great noife near us having made us turn 
round, one of my Hottentots, who obferved a 
fmall elephant, killed it. I was very forry for 
his rafhnefs, and reprimanded him feverely. As 
this animal was not larger than a calf of five 
or fix months old, I might have eafily tamed 
it. 
Among the four I had killed, there was a 
young male feven feet one inch in height. 
Its tufks weighed only about fifteen pounds 
each. 
The largeft of the reft, which were females, 
was only eight feet five inches in height ; and 
their tulks, in general, did not exceed fifteen 
pounds each. 
A fingularity which aftonifhed both me and 
* When the elephants are in a flock, and purfued, if 
the firft that is fired at falls, one may be certain of killing 
ail the reft, one after the other. I (hall fpeak of this fin- 
gularity hereafter. 
