ELEPHANTS 
725 
elsewhere, the elephants were absolutely or practically ex¬ 
terminated. Fortunately there is now efficient protection 
afforded them in many places by the laws of the European 
governments, especially by the British Government. In 
Uganda and British East Africa, and along certain parts of 
the Nile, the killing of cows and young stock has almost 
ceased, and the herds are quite or nearly holding their own. 
Naturally, where the beasts are much hunted they be¬ 
come exceedingly shy. They then drink only at night, and 
if possible never twice at the same place, and they travel 
extraordinary distances between times. The slightest taint 
in the air will stampede them, and they then go many miles 
without stopping. Sometimes their way will be for many 
miles across the burning plains, sometimes through dense 
jungle, sometimes through soft, wet soil, in which their feet 
punch huge holes. Under such conditions elephant hunt¬ 
ing becomes a work of wearing fatigue, entailing severer and 
longer-continued labor than any other form of the chase. 
But where the herds are not much molested they often show 
astonishing tameness and indifference to man. Near one 
of our camps in the Lado we one morning encountered a 
herd of thirty or forty cows, calves, and young beasts, half 
and three-quarters grown. They were in a broad, shallow 
valley, evidently a swamp in the wet season. The valley 
was covered with tall, rank grass, burned off in places, and 
dotted here and there with ant heaps and bushes and 
acacias. A big flock of cow herons accompanied the herd. 
The beasts were feeding on the grass when we first saw them, 
and we approached them close enough to see that there 
were no big bulls. After finishing feeding they moved off 
up the valley, the herons riding on their backs, but dismount- 
