98 
WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WA YS 
CHAP. 
herds of twenty or thirty entirely composed of 
large tuskers ; in other spots were parties of females 
with young ones interspersed, of varying growths, 
and this grand display of elephantine life continued 
for at least 2 miles in length as we rode parallel 
with the groups at about a quarter of a mile distant. 
It would have been impossible to guess the number, 
as there was no regularity in their arrangement, 
neither could I form any idea of the breadth of 
the area that was occupied. I have often looked 
back upon that extraordinary scene, and it occurred 
to me forcibly in after years, when I had 3200 
elephants’ tusks in one station of Central Africa, 
which must have represented 1600 animals slain for 
their fatal ivory. 
The day must arrive when ivory will be a pro¬ 
duction of the past, as it is impossible that the 
enormous demand can be supplied. I have already 
explained that the African savage never tames a wild 
animal, neither does he exhibit any sympathy or pity, 
his desire being, like the gunner of the nineteenth 
century, to exterminate. It may be readily imagined 
that wholesale destruction is the result whenever 
some favourable opportunity delivers a large herd of 
elephants into the native hands. 
There are various methods employed for trapping, 
or otherwise destroying. Pitfalls are the most com¬ 
mon, as they are simple, and generally fatal. Ele¬ 
phants are thirsty creatures, and when in large herds 
they make considerable roads in their passage to¬ 
wards a river. They are nearly always to be found 
