HAUNTS AND HABITS OP THE ELEPHANT 51 
There is a strange difference between the acuteness of an 
elephant’s hearing in the forest and in the open. The snapping 
of a twig in the forest will put him at once on the alert, while, 
when standing in a swamp in the open, he does not appear 
to hear anyone splashing in about three or four feet of water 
quite close to him. 
Yet it cannot be said that his instinct is altogether faulty, 
for on one occasion, when following up the spoor of a big 
bull, I noticed that it suddenly left the old track just before 
it came to a narrow opening between the edge of the forest 
and a large bush. Asking myself why he should so suddenly 
branch off without any apparent reason, I realised only just 
in time that I was on the brink of an artfully concealed game 
pit, which the wily tusker either suspected or was fully aware 
of, for he rejoined the old track some twenty yards further on. 
One other good feature that I have personally noticed 
about elephants is their solicitude for a wounded comrade. 
I happened one day to wound a bull which fell and immediately 
got up again. It was at once surrounded by about ten cows, 
who proceeded to help the wounded animal along. They 
hurried it into the centre of the herd, and rendered such effective 
assistance that, though followed up for ten miles, it eventually 
got away. 
One peculiar fact which enables a hunter to tell if any 
bulls accompany a herd is their habit of taking a parallel 
course a little to the right or left of the main spoor, and then 
crossing and travelling on the other side. This single spoor 
is an unfailing guide. The bull can as a rule be easily dis- 
tinguished by being so much broader and more massive than 
the female. 
The height of the bulls I have met with in the district 
described varies from eleven feet two inches to eleven feet ten 
inches at the shoulder. 
These details may not possibly agree with the impressions 
of more experienced students of the elephant, but I submit 
them for what they are worth, and as having been gleaned 
from my own experience and observation. 
