032 
VERTEBEATA. 
HUNTING ELEPHANTS IN AFRICA. 
Both animals expanded their ears and listened, then left their bath as the crowd rushed toward 
them. Tlie little one ran forward tow-ard the end of the valley, but seeing the men there re- 
turned to his dam. She placed herself on the danger side of her calf, and passed her proboscis 
over it again and again, as if to assure it of safety. She frequently looked back to the men, who 
kept up an incessant shouting, singing, and piping; then looked at her young one and ran after 
it, sometimes sideways, as if her feelings were divided between anxiety to protect her offspring and 
desire to revenge the temerity of her persecutors. The men kept about a hundred yards in her 
rear, and some that distance from her flanks, and continued thus until she was obliged to cross a 
rivulet. The time spent in descending and getting up the opposite bank allowed of their coming 
tip to the edge, and discharging their spears at about twenty yards' distance. After the first dis- 
charge she appeared with her sides red with blood, and, beginning to flee for her own life, seemed 
to think no more of her young. It ran very fast, but neither young nor old entered into a gal- 
lop ; their quickest pace was only a sharp walk. The calf took refuge in the water and was killed. 
The pace of the dam gradually became slower. She turned with a shriek of rage and made a 
furious charge back among the men. They vanished at right angles to her course, or sideways, 
and, as she ran straight on, she went through the whole party, but came near no one except a 
man who wore a piece of cloth on his shoulders. Bright clothing is always dangerous in these 
cases. She charged three or four times, and, except in the first instance, never went farther than 
a hundred yards. She often stood after she had crossed a rivulet, and faced the men, though she 
received fresh spears. It was by this process of spearing and loss of blood that she was killed ; 
for at last, making a short charge, she staggered round and sank down dead in a kneeling pos- 
ture." 
The following extract from Pringle's " Wanderings in South Africa" furnishes a clear idea of 
the habits of these animals in a wild state: "After raid-day, we came upon the recent traces of a 
troop of elephants. Their huge foot-prints were everywhere visible, and in the swampy spots, on 
the banks of the river, it was evident that some of them had been luxuriously enjoying themselves, 
by rolling their unwieldy bulks in the ooze and mud. But it was in the groves and jungles that 
they had left the most striking proofs of their recent presence and peculiar habits. In many 
places paths had been trodden through the midst of dense thorny forests, otherwise impenetrable. 
