J‘28 THE ELEPHANT OF AFRICA. 
During the forenoon, we had seen many herds of 
quaggas, and antelopes of various kinds, which I 
need not stop to enumerate ; but after mid-day, 
we came upon the recent traces of a troop of 
Elephants. Their huge foot-prints were every 
where 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. 
They appeared to have opened up these paths 
with great judgment, always taking the best 
and shortest cut to the next open savannah, or 
ford of the river ; and in this way their labours 
were of the greatest use to us by pioneering our 
route through a most intricate country, never yet 
traversed by a wheel-carriage, and great part of 
it, indeed, not easily accessible even on horseback. 
In such places, the great bull Elephant always 
marches in the van, bursting through the jungle, 
as a bullock would through a field of hops, tread- 
ing down the brushwood, and breaking off with 
his proboscis the larger branches that obstruct the 
passage, whilst the females and younger part of 
the herd follow in his wake. 
