File:Explorations and adventures in the wilds of Africa; (1909) (14783704503).jpg

Identifier: explorationsadve00wils (find matches)
Title: Explorations and adventures in the wilds of Africa;
Year: 1909 (1900s)
Authors: Wilson, James Russell
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Publisher: (Philadelphia?)
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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brave; each had some story of anarrow escape, and several declared that the elephants had run o /erthem, 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 hadstarted for the jungles, where they found him lying dead. Accordingly,they stole his magnificent tusks, which they carried to the town of Wak-kala, and confessed to taking all the flesh, but laid the blame of the ivorytheft upon the Wakkala tribe There was no redress. The questions oi a right of game are ever pro*line of b id blood, and it was necessary in this instance to treat the mattetlightly. Accordingly, the natives requested me to go out and shootthem another elephant; on the condition of obtaining the meat, theywere ready to join in any hunting expedition. The elephants in Central Africa have very superior tusks to those ofAbyssinia. I had shot a considerable number in the Base country on
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63 64 WONDERS OF THE TROPICS. the frontier of Abyssinia, and few tusks were 30 lbs. weight; those inthe neighborhood of the White Nile average about 50 lbs. for each tuskof a bull elephant, while those of the females are about 10 lbs. I haveseen monster tusks of 160 lbs., and one was in the possession of a traderthat weighed 172 lbs. It is seldom that a pair of tusks are fac-simile. As a man uses theright hand in preference to the left, so the elephant works with a partiesSar tusk, which is termed by the traders * el Hadam (the servant); thisis naturally more worn than the other, and is usually about ten poundslighter; frequently it is broken, as the elephant uses it as a lever touproot trees and to tear up the roots of various bushes upon which befeeds. Elephants in War. The African elephant is not only entirely different from the Indianspecies in his habits, but he also differs in form. There are three distinguishing peculiarities. The back of the Africanelephant is concave, that of

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