THE AFRICAN ELEPHANT AND ITS HUNTERS
THIS volume is not an attempt to deal with the elephant throughout its range in Africa, as the author’s experiences of hunting these animals only apply to the territories of Nyasaland, North-Eastern Rhodesia, and Portuguese East Africa.
Probably there never lived a man who has hunted the elephant in all its habitats in Africa, arid having read practically all the literature on the subject in the English language I have not discovered such an individual.
Selous hunted in Mashonaland and Matabeleland, now known as Southern Rhodesia; Neumann in British East Africa, now called Kenya Colony; and Stigand in Nyasaland and the Congo.
Perhaps Sir Alfred Sharpe has had a more varied experience of elephant hunting than any living person, and it is a pity he does not write more on the subject.
Before the days of licenses, when a hunter could not find a large tusker, he took a small one, and if there were no bulls worth a shot he would fire at cows.
Pound for pound cow ivory is of much greater value than that of the bulls, but the tusks seldom grow heavier than 15 Ibs.
Of course, it was imperative that restrictions should be made, for the improvement in sporting weapons and the development of communications would soon have brought the animals to the point of extinction.