ELEPHANT AND RHINOCEROS. 
869 
fall on its body a heavy-weighted and poisoned 
assegai, which soon does its deadly work. 
From the enormous bulk and power of the ele¬ 
phant, and the consequent fear that its presence 
creates amongst lesser animals, it cannot be said to 
have many enemies besides man. Even the lion 
himself slinks away from its presence, though its 
young, when straying somewhat away from the 
dam, occasionally fall a prey, as elsewhere said, to 
the ferocious beast. 
With the rhinoceros it has also occasional con¬ 
flicts, which no doubt at times end fatally. When 
at Omenbond4, we were told by the natives that a 
short time before our arrival a furious fight had 
taken place between the two animals. The rhino¬ 
ceros made a desperate charge at the elephant, 
striking its long sharp horn into the belly of the 
latter with such force as to be unable to extricate 
the weapon, and the elephant, in its fall, crushed its 
antagonist to death. 
Major Lally stated to the author of cc Oriental 
Sports,” moreover, that he himself once witnessed 
from a distant hill a most furious combat between 
a large male elephant and a rhinoceros, in which 
the former was worsted and fled. 
At times, also, the elephant succumbs to the 
elements. Whilst a party of Bushmen were follow¬ 
ing up the spoor of one of these animals that I had 
wounded on the preceding day, they came upon the 
carcase of a female who had been struck dead by 
lightning. This was the first instance I had known 
of these huge creatures being destroyed by the 
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