The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile by Samuel White Baker (best ebook reader for chromebook .txt) 📖

ahead, and thought of nothing but getting out of the

way. Yaseen, on “Filfil,” had fled in another direction; thus I had the

pleasure of being hunted down upon a sick and disabled horse. I kept

looking round, thinking that the elephant would give in:—we had been

running for nearly half a mile, and the brute was overhauling me so fast

that he was within ten or twelve yards of the horse’s tail, with his

trunk stretched out to catch him. Screaming like the whistle of an

engine, he fortunately so frightened the horse that he went his best,

although badly, and I turned him suddenly down the hill and doubled back

like a hare. The elephant turned up the hill, and entering the jungle he

relinquished the chase, when another hundred yards’ run would have

bagged me.

 

In a life’s experience in elephant-hunting, I never was hunted for such

a distance. Great as were Tetel’s good qualities for pluck and

steadiness, he had exhibited such distress and want of speed, that I was

sure he failed through some sudden malady. I immediately dismounted, and

the horse laid down, as I thought, to die.

 

Whistling loudly, I at length recalled Hamed, who had still continued

his rapid flight without once looking back, although the elephant was

out of sight. Yaseen was, of course, nowhere; but after a quarter of an

hour’s shouting and whistling, he reappeared, and I mounted Filfil,

ordering Tetel to be led home.

 

The sun had just sunk, and the two Latookas who now joined me refused to

go farther on the tracks, saying, that the elephant must die during the

night, and that they would find him in the morning. We were at least ten

miles from camp; I therefore fired a shot to collect my scattered men,

and in about half an hour we all joined together, except the camels and

their drivers, that we had left miles behind.

 

No one had tasted food since the previous day, nor had I drunk water,

although the sun had been burning hot; I now obtained some muddy rain

water from a puddle, and we went towards home, where we arrived at

half-past eight, every one tired with the day’s work. The camels came

into camp about an hour later.

 

My men were all now wonderfully brave; each had some story of a narrow

escape, and several declared that the elephants had run over them, but

fortunately without putting their feet upon them.

 

The news spread through the town that the elephant was killed; and, long

before daybreak on the following morning, masses of natives had started

for the jungles, where they found him lying dead. Accordingly, they

stole his magnificent tusks, which they carried to the town of Wakkala,

and confessed to taking all the flesh, but laid the blame of the ivory

theft upon the Wakkala tribe.

 

There was no redress. The questions of a right of game are ever prolific

of bad blood, and it was necessary in this instance to treat the matter

lightly. Accordingly, the natives requested me to go out and shoot them

another elephant: on the condition of obtaining the meat, they were

ready to join in any hunting expedition.

 

The elephants in Central Africa have very superior tusks to those of

Abyssinia. I had shot a considerable number in the Base country on the

frontier of Abyssinia, and few tusks were above 30 1bs. weight; those in

the neighbourhood of the White Nile average about 50 1bs. for each tusk

of a bull elephant, while those of the females are generally about 10

lbs. I have seen monster tusks of 160 lbs., and one was in the

possession of a trader, Mons. P., that weighed 172 1bs.

 

It is seldom that a pair of tusks are alike. As a man uses the right

hand in preference to the left, so the elephant works with a particular

tusk, which is termed by the traders “el Hadam” (the servant); this is

naturally, more worn than the other, and is usually about ten pounds

lighter: frequently it is broken, as the elephant uses it as a lever to

uproot trees and to tear up the roots of various bushes upon which he

feeds.

 

The African elephant is not only entirely different from the Indian

species in his habits, but he also differs in form.

 

There are three distinguishing peculiarities. The back of the African

elephant is concave, that of the Indian is convex; the ear of the

African is enormous, entirely covering the shoulder when thrown back,

while the ear of the Indian variety is comparatively small. The head of

the African has a convex front, the top of the skull sloping back at a

rapid inclination, while the head of the Indian elephant exposes a flat

surface a little above the trunk.

 

The average size of the African elephant is larger than those of Ceylon,

although I have occasionally shot monster rogues in the latter country,

equal to anything that I have seen in Africa. The average height of

female elephants in Ceylon is about 7 ft. 10 in. at the shoulder, and

that of the males is about 9 ft.; but the usual height of the African

variety I have found, by actual measurement, of females to be 9 ft.,

while that of the bills is 10 ft. 6 in. Thus the females of the African

are equal to the males of Ceylon.

 

They also differ materially in their habits. In Ceylon, the elephant

seeks the shade of thick forests at the rising of the sun, in which he

rests until about 5 P.M., when he wanders forth upon the plains. In

Africa, the country being generally more open, the elephant remains

throughout the day either beneath a solitary tree, or exposed to the sun

in the vast prairies, where the thick grass attains a height of from

nine to twelve feet. The general food of the African elephant consists

of the foliage of trees, especially of mimosas. In Ceylon, although

there are many trees that serve as food, the elephant nevertheless is an

extensive grass-feeder. The African variety, being almost exclusively a

tree-feeder, requires his tusks to assist him in procuring food. Many of

the mimosas are flat-headed, about thirty feet high, and the richer

portion of the foliage confined to the crown; thus the elephant, not

being able to reach to so great a height, must overturn the tree to

procure the coveted food. The destruction caused by a herd of African

elephants in a mimosa forest is extraordinary; and I have seen trees

uprooted of so large a size, that I am convinced no single elephant

could have overturned them. I have measured trees four feet six inches

in circumference, and about thirty feet high, uprooted by elephants. The

natives have assured me that they mutually assist each other, and that

several engage together in the work of overturning a large tree. None of

the mimosas have tap-roots; thus the powerful tusks of the elephants,

applied as crowbars at the roots, while others pull at the branches with

their trunks, will effect the destruction of a tree so large as to

appear invulnerable. The Ceylon elephant rarely possessing tusks, cannot

destroy a tree thicker than the thigh of an ordinary man.

 

In Ceylon, I have seldom met old bulls in parties—they are generally

single or remain in pairs; but, in Africa, large herds are met with,

consisting entirely of bulls. I have frequently seen sixteen or twenty

splendid bulls together, presenting a show of ivory most exciting to a

hunter. The females in Africa congregate in vast herds of many hundreds,

while in Ceylon the herds seldom average more than ten.

 

The elephant is by far the most formidable of all animals, and the

African variety is more dangerous than the Indian, as it is next to

impossible to kill it by the forehead shot. The head is so peculiarly

formed, that the ball either passes over the brain, or lodges in the

immensely solid bones and cartilages that contain the roots of the

tusks. I have measured certainly a hundred bull tusks, and I have found

them buried in the head a depth of 24 inches. One large tusk, that

measured 7 ft. 8 in. in length, and 22 inches in girth, was imbedded in

the head a depth of 31 inches. This will convey an idea of the enormous

size of the head, and of the strength of bone and cartilage required to

hold in position so great a weight, and to resist the strain when the

tusk is used as a lever to uproot trees.

 

The brain of an African elephant rests upon a plate of bone exactly

above the roots of the upper grinders; it is thus wonderfully protected

from a front shot, as it lies so low that the ball passes above it when

the elephant raises his head, which he invariably does when in anger,

until close to the object of his attack.

 

The character of the country naturally influences the habits of the

animals: thus, Africa being more generally open than the forest-clad

Ceylon, the elephant is more accustomed to activity, and is much faster

than the Ceylon variety. Being an old elephant-hunter of the latter

island, I was exceedingly interested in the question of variety of

species, and I had always held the opinion that the African elephant

might be killed with the same facility as that of Ceylon, by the

forehead shot, provided that a sufficient charge of powder were used to

penetrate the extra thickness of the head. I have found, by much

experience, that I was entirely wrong, and that, although by CHANCE an

African elephant may be killed by the front shot, it is the exception to

the rule. The danger of the sport is, accordingly, much increased, as it

is next to impossible to kill the elephant when in full charge, and the

only hope of safety consists in turning him by a continuous fire with

heavy guns: this cannot always be effected.

 

I had a powerful pair of No. 10 polygroove rifles, made by Reilly of

Oxford Street; they weighed fifteen pounds, and carried seven drachms of

powder without a disagreeable recoil. The bullet was a blunt cone, one

and a half diameter of the bore, and I used a mixture of nine-tenths

lead and one-tenth quicksilver for the hardening of the projectile. This

is superior to all mixtures for that purpose, as it combines hardness

with extra weight; the lead must be melted in a pot by itself to a red

heat, and the proportion of quicksilver must be added a ladle-full at a

time, and stirred quickly with a piece of iron just in sufficient

quantity to make three or four bullets. If the quicksilver is subjected

to a red heat in the large lead-pot, it will evaporate. The only

successful forehead shot that I made at an African elephant was shortly

after my arrival in the Abyssinian territory on the Settite river; this

was in thick thorny jungle, and an elephant from the herd charged with

such good intention, that had she not been stopped, she must have caught

one of the party. When within about five yards of the muzzle, I killed

her dead by a forehead shot with a hardened bullet as described, from a

Reilly No. 10 rifle, and we subsequently recovered the bullet in the

VERTEBRAE OF THE NECK!

 

This extraordinary penetration led me to suppose that I should always

succeed as I had done in Ceylon, and I have frequently stood the charge

of an African elephant until close upon me, determined to give the

forehead shot a fair trial, but I have ALWAYS failed, except in the

instance now mentioned; it must also be borne