340 
TO THE UASIN GISHU [ch. xii 
to photograph them. We did not need to kill another 
cow for the National Museum, and so, after we had 
looked at the huge, interesting creatures as long as we 
wished, we croaked and whistled, and they moved off 
with leisurely indifference. There is always a fascina¬ 
tion about watching elephants ; they are such giants, 
they are so intelligent —much more so than any other 
game, except perhaps the lion, whose intelligence has a 
very sinister bent—and they look so odd with their 
great ears flapping and their trunks lifting and curling. 
Elephants are rarely absolutely still for any length of 
time ; now and then they flap an ear, or their bodies 
sway slightly, while at intervals they utter curious 
internal rumblings, or trumpet gently. These were 
feeding on saplings of the mimosas and other trees, 
apparently caring nothing for the thorns of the former; 
they would tear off branches, big or little, or snap a 
trunk short off if the whim seized them. They swal¬ 
lowed the leaves and twigs of these trees ; but I have 
known them merely chew and spit out the stems of 
certain bushes. 
After leaving the elephants we were on our way back 
to camp when we saw a white man in the trail ahead ; 
and on coming nearer who should it prove to be but 
Carl Akeley, who was out on a trip for the American 
Museum of Natural History, in New York. We went 
with him to his camp, where we found Mrs. Akeley, 
Clark, who was assisting him, and Messrs. McCutcheon 
and Stevenson, who were on a similar errand. They 
were old friends, and I was very glad to see them. 
McCutcheon, the cartoonist, had been at a farewell 
lunch given me by Itobert Collier just before I left 
New York, and at the lunch we had been talking much 
of George Ade, and the first question I put to him was 
