THE GREAT THICK-SKINNED ANIMALS 165 
tossed her trunk up and down two or three times, and, falling on her 
broadside against a thorny tree, which yielded like grass before her 
enormous weight, she uttered a deep, hoarse cry, and expired. This 
was a very handsome old cow elephant, and was decidedly the best in 
the troop. She was in excellent condition, and carried a pair of long 
and perfect tusks. I was in high spirits at my success, and felt so 
perfectly satisfied with having killed one, that, although it was still 
early in the day, and my horses were fresh, I allowed the troop of five 
bulls to remain unmolested, foolishly trusting to fall in with them 
next day.” 
A herd of elephants is one of the most impressive sights known. 
To look down in a valley on a herd of two or three hundred, as is not 
unusual-—every height and knoll dotted over with groups of them, 
while the bottom of the valley is filled with a dense and noble, living 
mass, is truly a marvelous sight. Their colossal forms at one moment 
are partially concealed by the trees which they are disfiguring with 
giant strength; and at another seen majestically emerging into the 
open glades bearing in their trunks the branches of trees with which 
they indolently protect themselves from the flies. 
The African elephant has never been domesticated as his Indian 
cousin has. Many good stories are told of the bravery, high intelli¬ 
gence and affection of elephants in India. Kipling tells us of “ele¬ 
phants a pilin’ teak,” and it is a familiar sight in a lumber yard. In 
tiger hunting they are fearless and invaluable. Some there are so 
noted for their skill and reliability that they are reserved for royal 
sportsmen. However, the barbarous tribes of Africa have never 
dreamed of the possibility of rendering this lord of the jungle service¬ 
able in a domestic capacity; and even among the colonists there exists 
an unaccountable superstition that his subjugation is not to be accom¬ 
plished. In India elephants become very adept at the catching and 
breaking of wild elephants, and were this method adopted in Africa 
and the native animal domesticated and used against other big game, 
it would become one of the greatest sports in the world. 
Once killed the elephant is of no use except for the ivory of his 
tusks. The natives and some Europeans, however, esteem elephant 
steak and baked elephant’s feet great luxuries. The tusks are cm- 
