THE ELEPHANT 
fetches a much higher price per pound than that of the biggest males. 
This wholesale shooting of cow elephants was, of course, most destructive 
to the life of the species, and, looking to the enormous toll which is now 
annually taken from the numbers of the African elephant, it is only right that 
these animals should be protected within reason by all civilized Govern- 
ments; but the abuse which is so liberally showered upon men who have 
shot cow elephants by some of our too -zealous game preservers is a little 
overdone. A professional elephant hunter may now be out of place in the 
world as it is, but at any rate he was a man who led a very hard life, and 
took that life in his hand every time he followed a herd of elephants into 
the thick thorn jungles in which those animals love to stand during the 
hottest hours of the day. 
Speaking generally, cow elephants are very much more dangerous than 
big bulls, for not only are they, as a rule, much more ready to charge than 
the latter, but when they do charge, they are much quicker in their 
movements. 
Modern quick-firing rifles of enormous power probably reduce the 
danger of elephant hunting to a very considerable extent, but even now 
accidents frequently happen. 
The question is very often asked: “ What is the most effective rifle for 
elephant hunting ? ” I think the answer to that question should be: “The 
best rifle for elephant shooting is the most powerful weapon that a man’s 
physical powers will allow him to make use of effectively.” 
Forty years ago the men who made their living by elephant hunting in 
South Africa, Boer and British alike, used nothing but heavy, clumsy old 
muzzle -loading smooth-bore guns of very large bore. Many elephants were 
killed with these primitive fire-arms, but they were, of course, very in- 
ferior to a modern cordite rifle, and as it took such a long time to re -load 
a muzzle -loading gun when it was once discharged, the dangers of 
elephant hunting with such weapons were naturally greater than they 
are to-day. It was only towards the close of the elephant -hunting era in 
South Africa, not long before the occupation of Mashonaland by the forces 
of the British South Africa Company, that it was discovered that elephants 
could be killed by body shots with much smaller bullets than the four- 
ounce spherical balls which up to that time had been looked upon as 
necessary for the destruction of these huge creatures. 
Since that time many elephants have been killed in other parts of Africa 
with small-bore cordite rifles, and this not only with brain shots, but also 
9 
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