After The First Discharge She Appeared
With Her Sides Red With Blood, And, Beginning To Flee For Her Own Life,
Seemed To Think No More Of Her Young.
I had previously sent off Sekwebu
with orders to spare the calf.
It ran very fast, but neither young nor old
ever enter into a gallop; their quickest pace is only a sharp walk.
Before Sekwebu could reach them, the calf had taken refuge in the water,
and was killed. The pace of the dam gradually became slower. She turned
with a shriek of rage, and made a furious charge back among the men.
They vanished at right angles to her course, or sideways,
and, as she ran straight on, she went through the whole party,
but came near no one except a man who wore a piece of cloth on his shoulders.
Bright clothing is always dangerous in these cases. She charged
three or four times, and, except in the first instance,
never went farther than 100 yards. She often stood after she had
crossed a rivulet, and faced the men, though she received fresh spears.
It was by this process of spearing and loss of blood that she was killed;
for at last, making a short charge, she staggered round and sank down dead
in a kneeling posture. I did not see the whole hunt, having been
tempted away by both sun and moon appearing unclouded. I turned from
the spectacle of the destruction of noble animals, which might be made
so useful in Africa, with a feeling of sickness, and it was not relieved
by the recollection that the ivory was mine, though that was the case.
I regretted to see them killed, and more especially the young one,
the meat not being at all necessary at that time; but it is right to add
that I did not feel sick when my own blood was up the day before.
We ought, perhaps, to judge those deeds more leniently in which we ourselves
have no temptation to engage. Had I not been previously guilty of doing
the very same thing, I might have prided myself on superior humanity
when I experienced the nausea in viewing my men kill these two.
The elephant first killed was a male, not full grown;
his height at the withers, 8 feet 4 inches; circumference of the fore foot,
44 inches * 2 = 7 feet 4 inches. The female was full grown,
and measured in height 8 feet 8 inches; circumference of the fore foot,
48 inches * 2 = 8 feet (96 inches). We afterward found that
full-grown male elephants of this region ranged in height at the withers
from 9 feet 9 inches to 9 feet 10 inches, and the circumference
of the fore foot to be 4 feet 9-1/2 inches * 2 = 9 feet 7 inches.
These details are given because the general rule has been observed
that twice the circumference of the impression made by the fore foot
on the ground is the height of the animal. The print on the ground,
being a little larger than the foot itself, would thus seem to be
an accurate mode of measuring the size of any elephant that has passed;
but the above measurements show that it is applicable only
to full-grown animals. The greater size of the African elephant in the south
would at once distinguish it from the Indian one; but here they approach
more nearly to each other in bulk, a female being about as large
as a common Indian male. But the ear of the African is an external mark
which no one will mistake even in a picture. That of the female now killed
was 4 feet 5 inches in depth, and 4 feet in horizontal breadth.
I have seen a native creep under one so as to be quite covered from the rain.
The ear of the Indian variety is not more than a third of this size.
The representation of elephants on ancient coins shows
that this important characteristic was distinctly recognized of old.
Indeed, Cuvier remarked that it was better known by Aristotle than by Buffon.
Having been anxious to learn whether the African elephant
is capable of being tamed, through the kindness of my friend Admiral Smythe
I am enabled to give the reader conclusive evidence on this point.
In the two medals furnished from his work, "A descriptive Catalogue of
his Cabinet of Roman and Imperial large brass Medals", the size of the ears
will be at once noted as those of the true African elephant.*
They were even more docile than the Asiatic, and were taught various feats,
as walking on ropes, dancing, etc. One of the coins is of Faustina senior,
the other of Severus the Seventh, and struck A.D. 197. These elephants
were brought from Africa to Rome. The attempt to tame this most useful animal
has never been made at the Cape, nor has one ever been exhibited in England.
There is only one very young calf of the species in the British Museum.
-
* Unfortunately these illustrations can not be presented in this ASCII text.
- A. L., 1997.
-
The abundance of food in this country, as compared with the south,
would lead one to suppose that animals here must attain a much greater size;
but actual measurement now confirms the impression made on my mind
by the mere sight of the animals, that those in the districts north of 20 Deg.
were smaller than the same races existing southward of that latitude.
The first time that Mr. Oswell and myself saw full-grown male elephants
on the River Zouga, they seemed no larger than the females (which are always
smaller than males) we had met on the Limpopo. There they attain
a height of upward of 12 feet. At the Zouga the height of one I measured
was 11 feet 4 inches, and in this district 9 feet 10 inches. There is,
however, an increase in the size of the tusks as we approach the equator.
Unfortunately, I never made measurements of other animals in the south;
but the appearance of the animals themselves in the north at once produced
the impression on my mind referred to as to their decrease in size.
When we first saw koodoos, they were so much smaller than those
we had been accustomed to in the south that we doubted whether they were not
a new kind of antelope; and the leche, seen nowhere south of 20 Deg.,
is succeeded by the poku as we go north.
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