impression of their enormous strength. I 
have seen a tree a foot in diameter thus up¬ 
rooted and overturned. 
The African elephant has never, like his 
Indian kinsman, been trained to man’s use. 
There is still hope that the feat may be per¬ 
formed; but hitherto its probable economic 
usefulness has for various reasons seemed 
so questionable that there has been scant 
encouragement to undergo the necessary 
expense and labor. Up to the present time 
the African elephant has yielded only his 
ivory as an asset of value. This, however, 
has been of such great value as well nigh 
to bring about the mighty beast’s utter ex¬ 
termination. Ivory hunters and ivory trad¬ 
ers have penetrated Africa to the haunts of 
the elephant since centuries before our era, 
and the elephant’s boundaries have been 
slowly receding throughout historic time; 
but during the century just past its process 
Vol. XLVII.—67 
has been immensely accelerated, until now 
there are but one or two out-of-the-way 
nooks of the Dark Continent to the neigh¬ 
borhood of which hunter and trader have 
not penetrated. Fortunately the civilized 
powers which now divide dominion over 
Africa have waked up in time, and there is 
at present no danger of the extermination 
of the lord of all four-footed creatures. 
Large reserves have been established on 
which various herds of elephants now live 
what is, at least for the time being, an en¬ 
tirely safe life. Furthermore, over great 
tracts of territory outside the reserves regu¬ 
lations have been promulgated which, if en¬ 
forced as they are now enforced, will pre¬ 
vent any excessive diminution of the herds. 
In British East Africa, for instance, no cows 
are allowed to be shot save for special pur¬ 
poses, as for preservation in a museum, or 
to safeguard life and property; and no bulls 
657 
