leaves, and so on, are picked up by the little finger and thumb-like projections about which I told you, while larger objects are grasped by the trunk itself. I dare say that you have seen an elephant pick up and eat a biscuit; and, if so, you will very well remember the manner in which the trunk carried food to the mouth.

So useful, indeed, is the trunk, that if deprived of its aid, even for a few days only, the elephant would certainly die. His neck is so short that he could obtain neither food or drink, for he could not bend his head to the ground and so procure water, while his long tusks would prevent him from even plucking the leaves which might grow within his reach.

I dare say you will wonder why it is that the neck should be so short and stout. The fact is, that the head, with the teeth and the enormous tusks, is so immensely heavy, that the neck must be very large in order to contain the powerful muscles which are needed to sustain it. This accounts for its great size, and we may also see with equal ease, the reason for its shortness by trying a single experiment. Mud-Bathers-Elephants.-Nearly every tropical animal, including the tiger, bathes either in water or in mud. Perhaps the best-known mud-bathers are the wild boar, the water-buffalo, and the elephant. The latter has an immense advantage over all other animals, in the use of its trunk for dressing wounds. It is at once a syringe, a powdering-puff and a hand. Water, mud, and dust are the main "applications" used, though it sometimes covers a sunscorched back with grass or leaves. "Wounded elephants," writes an African explorer, "have marvelous power of recovery when in their wild state, although they have no gifts of surgical knowledge, their simple system being confined to plastering their wounds with mud, or blowing dust upon the surface. Dust and mud comprise the entire pharmacopoeia of the elephant, and this is applied upon the most trivial as well as upon the most serious occasions. I have seen them when in a tank plaster up a bullet wound with mud taken from the bottom."

Once killed the elephant is of no use except for the ivory of his tusks. The natives and some Europeans, however, esteem elephant steak and baked elephant's feet great luxuries. The tusks are em

bedded in massive sockets spreading over the greater portion of the face, and the operation of hewing them out with an axe usually occupies several hours. A female with tusks is an African oddity unknown in India.

The Rhinoceros.-The elephant, as the largest animal known, is entitled to first consideration, but the rhinoceros is a worthy rival from sportsman's viewpoint. Upwards of six feet high at the

shoulders and about thirteen feet in extreme length, it is a ridiculous, yet awe-inspiring, sight to watch one charging along with short stubby tail angrily erect, the big ungainly body supported on short and seemingly inadequate legs. The head is large and long with small eyes placed well on the side. Their sight is very poor and this fact has saved many a man's life who had the presence of mind to lie down when facing a charge. However, their scent is so keen that it nearly compensates for the poor eyesight. The rhinoceros is bad tempered

and resentful of interference. He usually charges a man on sight, and his enormous weight and strength, coupled with the two horns on his snout, render him one of the most dangerous species of African game. The muzzle is long and somewhat flat and from this the two horns project, placed one behind the other and varying in length. Several men have been tossed on these deadly horns and by some miracle lived to tell the tale. All were badly crippled. The animal rarely fails to kill and mangle beyond recognition any hunter who either through an accident or nervousness misses his shot. There is a well known and authentic story of one terrible attack by a rhino. While a gang of twenty-one slaves was being taken down to the coast chained neck to neck, a big rhino broke out of the bush and impaled the center man on his horn, breaking the necks of all the others by the suddenness of the shock.

The rhinoceros is difficult to kill, as soft-nose bullets merely splash out on its thick, naked hide. Here again the big .450 express rifle with its steel-jacketed bullets is invaluable. The brownish-black skin, rugged but without folds, makes a good target, and a shot either just behind the foreshoulder or in the curve between the neck and shoulder is apt to prove fatal.

When pursued, the animal dashes through the forest with tremendous speed, and marks its path by the dead trees which it brings to the ground, and the broken boughs which lie scattered in every direction. The havoc made by a cannon shot in passing through the timbers of a line-of-battle ship may give some idea of the kind of destruction accomplished by the rhinoceros in its headlong course. It is not easily overtaken; nor is it easily surprised, for it is protected, as we have said, by its keenness of scent and hearing. It can discern the approach of an enemy from a considerable distance; and it is well for it that these senses are so powerful, inasmuch as, owing to the smallness and deep-set position of its eyes, its range of vision is exceedingly limited. It is said that it is also assisted by the warnings of a bird, the Buphaga Africana, which frequently accompanies the rhinoceros, and seems to be animated by a strong feeling of attachment for its unwieldy friend, indicating the approach of danger by a signal-cry.

Like most of the tropical animals, the rhinoceros rests or slumbers during the day. At nightfall, it proceeds to the nearest lake or river to quench its thirst, and, by wallowing in the mud, to cover itself with a coat of clay as a protection against insects. Then it sallies forth on a foraging expedition, and in the course of the night covers a considerable extent of ground. At sunrise it retires again to rest, and under the shade of a rock or a tree sleeps through the hot hours of the tropical day, either standing erect, or stretched out at full length.

A BATTLE BETWEEN A BUFFALO AND A HIPPOPOTAMUS

The organs of scent of the rhinoceros are very acute, and as the creature seems to have a peculiar faculty for detecting the presence of human beings, it is necessary for the hunters to use the greatest circumspection when they approach it, whether to avoid or to kill, as in the one case it may probably be taken with a sudden fit of fury, and charge at them, or in the other case, it may take the alarm and escape.

The upper lip is used by the rhinoceros as an instrument to seize or hold things fast, it can grasp the herbage on which it feeds, or

pick up small fruit from the ground. A tame rhinoceros in the Zoological Gardens will take a piece of bun or biscuit from a visitor's hand by means of the flexible upper lip.

The Hippopotamus.-Next among the pachyderm family and in the hunter's estimation comes the hippopotamus, the river horse of the ancients, though there is hardly any basis for the name save that it lives chiefly in or near the water. Not as large as the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus stands from four to five feet high at the shoulders and is from ten to eleven feet long.

Hippo shooting is considered good sport. The hunter rarely ever secures an easy shot, as the animals are found chiefly in the water and almost entirely submerged. Further than that, the skin, which is pinkish-brown in color, is so hard and thick that a shot must be very accurately placed to take effect. The skin is naked, thick, and penetrated by pores which exude or give out a thick, fatty liquid, which may perhaps be of utility while in the water. The front part of the head is massive, and broader than that of any other living quadruped; the nostrils are comparatively small slits, which are closed and watertight during the frequent dives beneath the surface of the water; the eyes are prominent, and placed far back in the head; and the ears are so short that they look as if they had been cropped.

The best time to hunt hippo is at night and the place a "run" or path by which they go to water. There are often flattened places on the banks where the big ugly brutes come out to roll. The easiest and best thing to do is to climb a tree before moonrise near this run or rolling place and wait until the hippo's peculiar tooting challenge or the noise of the great beast crashing through the forest or pounding along the run is heard. This is the best sort of an opportunity to get a specimen, as, if the shooting has to be done from an island or from the bank on foot, a charge by the hippo may result very seriously. Though the enormous ungainly body is carried on very short legs, it is capable of considerable speed for a short distance on land and of swimming with perfect ease, and not only the rush but an attack with the heavy tusks placed on both sides of the big, thick, square head is to be feared.