CHAPTER XI 
NINE DAYS WITHOUT SEEING AN ELEPHANT. THE 
ROOSEVELT PARTY DEPARTS AND WE MARCH FOR 
THE MOUNTAINS ON OUR BIG ELEPHANT 
HUNT. THE POLICEMAN OF THE PLAINS 
The Mount Elgon elephants have a very bad repu¬ 
tation. The district is remote from government 
protection and for years the herds have been the 
prey of Swahili and Arab ivory hunters, as well as 
poachers of all sorts who have come over the 
Uganda border or down from the savage Turkana 
and Suk countries on the north. As a natural con¬ 
sequence of this unrestricted poaching the herds 
have been hunted and harassed so much that most 
of the large hull elephants with big ivory have been 
killed, leaving for the greater part big herds of 
cows and young elephants made savage and vicious 
by their persecution. Elephant hunters who have 
conscientiously hunted the district bring in reports 
of having seen herds of several hundred elephants, 
most of which were cows and calves, and of having 
seen no hulls of large size. 
The government game license permits the holder 
to kill two elephants, the ivory of each to he at least 
sixty pounds. This means a fairly large elephant 
and may be either a hull or a cow. The cow ivory, 
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