168 
IN AFRICA 
forest, and the only ways in which a man may pene¬ 
trate to his haunts are by these ancient trails. Mount 
Kenia, as seen from afar, looks soft and green and 
easy to stroll up, but no man unguided could ever 
find his way out if once lost in the labyrinth of trails 
that criss-cross in the forest. 
For many years the elephants of Kenia have 
been practically secure from the white hunter with 
his high-powered rifles. Warfare between the na¬ 
tive tribes on the slopes has been so constant that it 
was not until three or four years ago that it was 
considered reasonably safe for the government to 
allow hunting parties to invade the south side of 
the mountain. Prior to that time the elephant’s 
most formidable enemies were the native hunter, 
who fought with poisoned spears and built deep pits 
in the trails, pits cleverly concealed with thin strips 
of bamboo and dried leaves, and the ivory hunting 
poachers. In 1906 the government granted permis¬ 
sion to Mr. Akeley to enter this hitherto closed dis¬ 
trict to secure specimens for the Field Museum, 
and even then there was only a narrow strip that 
was free from tribal warfare. It was at that time 
that his party secured seven splendid tuskers, one 
of which, a one-hundred-fifteen-pound tusker shot 
by Mrs. Akeley, was the largest ever killed on 
Mount Kenia. And it was to this district that Mr. 
Akeley led our safari late in October to try again 
for elephants on the old familiar stamping ground. 
We pitched our camp in a lovely spot where one of 
his camps had stood three years before, just at the 
