404 WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WA VS chap. 
hundred beaters. This experience would denote 
that the bears travel long distances at night, to 
visit some favourite resort which produces the 
necessary food. The stomachs of all wild animals 
when shot should be immediately examined, as 
the contents will be a guide to the locality which 
they inhabit. I have killed elephants in Africa at 
least 50 miles distant from any cultivation, but their 
stomachs were filled with dhurra [Sorglmm vtdgare), 
thus proving that they had wandered great dis¬ 
tances in search of a much-loved food that could 
not be obtained in their native forests. In the 
same manner all wild animals will travel extra¬ 
ordinary distances to obtain either water or food in 
countries where they are liable to be pursued.- 
When the watchers who protect the crops are in 
sufficient force to drive the nocturnal intruders 
away with guns, the same animals will probably 
not reappear upon the following night, but they 
will visit some well-known spot in an opposite 
direction, and reappear forty-eight hours later upon 
the forbidden ground. 
The elephants in that portion of Abyssinia which 
is traversed by the various affluents of the Nile, 
being much harassed by the sword-hunters of the 
Hamran Arabs, never drink in the same locality 
upon two nights consecutively ; they drink in the 
Settite river perhaps on Monday, march 30 miles 
in retreat, and on the following night they will 
have wandered another 30 miles to the river Gash, 
in a totally opposite direction. They will then 
