CHAPTER XVI 
BIG GAME AND BIG GAME HUNTING 
Generally speaking, throughout Africa, the best 
time for hunting, especially elephant hunting, is 
towards the end of the dry season, and when the 
early rains have begun. In German and Portuguese 
East Africa, where I have spent most of my hunting 
days, this period extends from September to the 
end of January. I have always shot more elephants, 
in the four months, September, October, November, 
and December, than in the remaining eight months 
put together, although I shoot steadily all the year 
round. Various causes conduce to this result. In 
the first place, most of the small pools and tributary 
streams are dry, and water can only be obtained at 
main streams and odd water-holes, so that elephants, 
who during the previous months roam all over the 
country, now perforce congregate within these 
areas ; also, the heat being more intense during the 
four months above mentioned, the quarry tires 
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