64 
THE SOLITARY ELEPHANT 
THE SOLITARY ELEPHANT 
in ngonga’s country near the yala swamp, nyanza 
PROVINCE 
By C. W. Woodhouse 
The history of this beast, a cow, is as follows : — 
Some time ago three elephants (and according to some 
stories a calf as well) having been harried in Kisii or South 
Kavirondo, crossed the lake at the mouth of the Kavirondo 
gulf. One turned back, one was exhausted on arrival and was 
slaughtered by the natives on landing, and the third went up 
to the Yala swamp. Some accounts say the calf was drowned 
in the lake. 
The elephant has taken up its permanent residence in 
some thick scrub on the Otodwa Stream, close to the Yala. 
This retreat it leaves to raid the numerous native shambas, 
but is said never to be away for more than five days at a time. 
It also feeds on the bush near the Yala at the mouth of the 
Otodwa. It has lost all fear of man, and the natives say if it 
meets any of them it chases them. It has terrorised all the 
neighbouring villages and done a very great deal of damage. 
The natives state that the surest way of finding it is to go into 
the bush, when it will charge. Needless to say they evince 
little or no curiosity to see it. The place where the natives state 
is its permanent home fully bears out their statements. The 
quantity of dung, trampled grass and broken trees might have 
been caused by a large herd of elephants. The day the writer 
inspected the site, the elephant was raiding some villagers’ 
crops on the south bank of the Yala. The beast’s tusks are 
said to only project some two feet from the lip, and are thin. 
There is no doubt this animal is a most dangerous ‘ rogue,’ 
and if not destroyed or removed will probably in the near future 
commit culpable homicide. 
There are no other elephants in the Nyanza Province north 
of the Kavirondo gulf nearer than Elgon, and possibly the 
same distance away in Uganda. 
