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Wild Beasts and Their Ways

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imaginary members of the family, the elephant commences to back a half-dozen paces as a preliminary to a desperate onset. This is the well-known sign of the coming charge. A sharp shrill trumpet! and, with its enormous ears thrown forward, the great bull elephant rushes towards the apparently doomed horse. As quick as lightning the horse is turned, and a race commences along a course terribly in favour of the elephant, where deep ruts, thick tangled bush, and the branches of opposing trees obstruct both horse and rider. Everything now depends upon the sure-footedness of the horse and the cool dexterity of the rider. For the first 100 yards an elephant will follow at 20 miles an hour, which keeps the horse flying at top speed before it. The rider, even in this moment of great danger, looks behind him, and adapts his horse's pace so narrowly to that of his pursuer that the elephant's attention is wholly absorbed by the hope of overtaking the unhappy victim. In the meantime, two hunters follow the elephant at full gallop; one seizes his companion's reins and secures the horse, while the rider springs to the ground with the same agility as a trained circus-rider, and with one dexterous blow of his flashing sword he divides the back sinew of the elephant's hind leg about 16 inches above the heel. The sword cuts to the bone. The elephant that was thundering forward at a headlong speed suddenly halts; the foot dislocates when the great weight of the animal presses upon it deprived of the supporting sinew. That one cut of the sharp blade, disables an animal which appeared invincible. As the elephant moves both legs upon the same side simultaneously, the disabling of one leg entirely cripples all progress, and the creature becomes absolutely helpless. The hunter, having delivered his fatal stroke, springs nimbly upon one side to watch the effect, and then without difficulty he slashes the back sinew of the remaining leg, with the result that the animal bleeds to death. This is a cruel method, but it requires the utmost dexterity and daring on the part of the hunters, most of whom eventually fall victims to their gallantry. I was accompanied by these splendid sword-hunters of the Hamran Arabs in 1861 during my exploration of the Nile tributaries of Abyssinia; and upon the first occasion that I was introduced to an African male elephant, the animal was standing at the point of a long sandbank which had during high water formed the bed of the river, where a sudden bend had hollowed out the inner side of the curve and thrown up a vast mass of sand upon the opposite shore. This bank was a succession of terraces, each about 4 feet high, formed at intervals during the changes in the level of the retreating stream. The elephant was standing partly in the water drinking, and quite 100 yards from the forest upon the bank. The huge dark mass upon the glaring surface of white sand stood out in bold relief and exhibited to perfection the form and proportions of the animal; but it was so unlike the Indian elephant of my long experience that I imagined some accident must have caused a deformity of the back, which was deeply hollowed, instead of being convex like the Asiatic species. I whispered this to my hunters, who did not seem to understand the remark; and they immediately dismounted, exclaiming that the loose sand was too deep for their horses, and they preferred to be on foot. It was difficult to approach this elephant, as there was no cover whatever upon the large area of barren sand; the only method was to keep close to the level of the water below the terraces, as the head of the animal was partially turned away from us whilst drinking. I had a very ponderous single rifle weighing 22 lbs., which carried a conical shell of half a pound, with a charge of 16 drams of powder. The sand was so deep that any active movement would have been impossible with the load of so heavy a weapon; I therefore determined to take a shoulder shot should I be able to arrive unperceived within 50 yards. Stooping as low as possible, and occasionally lying down as the ever-swinging head moved towards us, we at length arrived at the spot which I had determined upon for the fatal shot. Just at that moment the elephant perceived us, but before he had made up his mind, I fired behind the shoulder, and as the smoke cleared, I distinctly saw the bullet-hole, with blood flowing from the wound. I think the elephant would have charged, but without a moment's hesitation my gallant Hamrans rushed towards him sword in hand in the hope of slashing his hamstring before he could reach the forest. This unexpected and determined onset decided the elephant to retreat, which he accomplished at such a pace, owing to the large surface of his feet upon the loose sand, that the active hunters were completely distanced, although they exerted themselves to the utmost in their attempts to overtake him. The wound through the shoulder was fatal, and the elephant fell dead in thick thorny jungle, to which it had hurried as a secure retreat. This was a very large animal, but as I did not actually measure it, any guess at the real height would be misleading. As before noted, the measurement of the African elephant Jumbo, when sold by the Zoological Society of London, was 11 feet in height of shoulder, and 6 tons 10 cwts. nett when weighed before shipment at the docks. That animal might be accepted as a fair specimen, although it would be by no means unusual to see wild elephants which greatly exceed this size. The peculiar shape of head renders a front shot almost impossible, and the danger of hunting the African elephant is greatly enhanced by this formation of the skull, which protects the brain and offers no defined point for aim. I have never succeeded in killing a male African elephant by the forehead shot, although it is certainly fatal to the Asiatic variety if placed rather low, in the exact centre of the boss or projection above the trunk. Should an African elephant charge, there is no hope of killing the animal by a direct shot, and the only chance of safety for the hunter is the possession of good nerves and a powerful double-barrelled rifle, No. 8 or No. 4, with 14 drams of powder and a well-hardened bullet. The right-hand barrel will generally stop a

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