ELEPHANTS 
729 
when it is passing through jungle, but even in the open. It 
is said that elephants only scream when the trunk is ex¬ 
tended, but if this is so, then in some cases the elephants 
must curl the trunk the very moment the scream is fin¬ 
ished, for the impression conveyed is that the screaming and 
the advent of the furious animal with its trunk curled are 
simultaneous. On one occasion, when an elephant charged 
us and was stopped by a right and left from Cuninghame 
when but a few feet distant, it threw its trunk high in the 
air on or immediately after receiving the bullets. Carl 
Akeley informs us that one elephant that charged him came 
on screaming and thrashing the tall grass, tearing up and 
tossing and plucking and brandishing branches and bunches 
of grass, so that it looked like a hay-tedder. If an elephant 
catches a man it usually falls on its knees and endeavors to 
stab him with its tusks; but sometimes it knocks him down, 
puts one foot on him, and plucks off his head or legs or arms 
with its trunk; and sometimes it snatches him aloft with 
its trunk and beats him against the ground, or perhaps 
against a tree. A wounded cow elephant, on being ap¬ 
proached by us, struggled to arise and uttered, not a scream, 
but a kind of roaring growl. 
We spoke above of the fact that elephants are sometimes 
found in the desert. This was a surprise to us. We had 
already found them high on the cold mountain slopes, in 
cool, park-like uplands, in wet, rank, steaming tropic jungles, 
in thick forest, and in hot, open, grassy plains. Our old 
hunting companion, Mr. R. J. Cuninghame, wrote us of his 
experiences with them in the desert north of the Northern 
Guaso Nyiro shortly after we left Africa: “From the Chanler 
Falls we went north 40 or 50 miles. The country is covered 
