Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
Hl/NTING FOR IVORY.
A GRAPHIC ACCOUNT OF THE PERILS ENCOUNTERED IN
PROCURING THE BEAUTIFUL MATERIAL OF WHICH
PIANO-KEYS ARE MADE.
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H EN a full-grown elephant, stung to frenzy by
three or four wounds, turns at bay on you,
says a correspondent of the New York Sun,
look out! He is more to be feared than any other beast
on earth, and the hunter who escapes him must depend
upon luck or accident.
There was a period of three years when I was regu-
larly employed by an English house at Zanzibar to hunt
for ivory, and I was fitted out in the most liberal man-
ner, and permitted to go in any direction inland. The
main object was to secure tusks, and I sent enough of
them to Zanzibar to seemingly supply the markets of
the world for fifty years. Something is written every
day of the tame elephants—the big, good-natured beasts
of the circus and the Zoological gardens—but very lit-
tle is written of the wild ones. I had opportunity to
study them under all sons of circumstances, and have
never been satisfied with the accounts given by hunters
and naturalists. In my opinion the elephant in his na-
tive pastures is the keenest, shrewdest and most intel-
ligent of all animals. He has more courage than the
lion, more ferocity than the tiger and more cunning
than the fox. Only man is a match for him, and it
must be a pretty intelligent man, too.
I started in the business of elephant hunting with the
idea that I only had to look up a drove of the beasts
and begin shooting, but I soon discovered that I was
laboring under a mistake. I have never seen any refer-
ence made in print to the powers of vision possessed
by wild elephants. Nature endows all wild creatures
with extra keen eyesight, but 1 believe the elephant can
see further than any other four-footed animal. I had
an instance of this in my first trip out. We had cross-
ed the Zanzibar Mountains, and were moving down a
valley, when my boy Joe, as I called him, who was run-
ning on ahead to look for a spring, gave me the signal
that game was near at hand. We had not yet encoun-
tered an elephant, but I very soon had proofs that one
or more of the animals had lately passed down the val-
ley. I had with me about fifteen natives, a large wagon
drawn by bullocks, two milch cows, and several horses,
and the party was halted as soon as possible, and Joe
sent forward to the right to reconnoiter. As I after-
ward learned, he struck into a beaten path, which twist-
ed and turned until it brought him out at a spot fully
two miles from where an old bull elephant was stand-
ing in the shade of a grove. Joe could not see the
beast, hardly more than the tops of the trees. To the
human eye he would have been confounded with earth
or sky. The wind was not blowing right for the ele-
phant to catch his scent, nor could he have raised an
alarm at that distance. He no sooner appeared in the
open, however, than we heard the big beast trumpet
his discovery and alarm, Near as we were to him he
had not scented us, and so when he turned and bol.ed
he came dead at us. I gave him a couple of ounce balls
and turned him aside, and he went off so fast that he
could not be overhauled.
Another instance of their power of vision occurred
a couple of weeks later on. Joe and I had come down
a valley a mile and a half to get into the woods at a
large pool. From a tree top at the other end of the
valley the boy had seen elephants enter the jungle at
this point. We were on foot, and we skirted the edge
of the valley so as to show ourselves as little as possi-
ble. The elephants had entered the forest, traveled
across it to another valley, gone up that valley half a
mile, and then started to come back by the route Joe
had seen them take. It was exactly as if they had
walked the course of a triangle. That was a specimen
of their cunning. They had not got our wind or any
other hint of danger, and they could not have suspected
there was an enemy within a hundred miles. They
meant to feed where they first entered the forest, but
before they would break a branch they made a journey
of five miles to see that the coast was clear. I was
posted just where they had entered before and proba-
bly would again, and as they came down one of the
sides of the triangle I had them in view for ten minutes
before they were within rifle shot. There were nine in
the herd, all full grown but one, and as they were now
satisfied that no danger menaced them they came on at
a swinging pace. The wind blew from them to me,
and I was so well hidden that a sailor with a telescope
could not have discovered me. All of a sudden the
leader paused, flung up his trunk with a shrill cry, and to deal with. I had wounded him severely one moon-
the next instant the troop turned sharply to the left and alight night as he stood drinking at a pool with five or
went crashing into the heavy jungle. I was satisfied six others. They all went off with a rush, and I sup-
they had seen something up the valley to alarm them, posed my shot had failed. About ten o'clock next fore-
but I looked and looked in vain. I finally sent Joe off noon, as I was beating a piece of forest fully four miles
to make an inspection, and what do you suppose he from the pool, with my boy Joe carrying an extra gun,
found ? The careless fellow had dropped a rubber gun- the wounded elephant suddenly charged us up a hillside.
cover on the grass a mile away. No man living could He was not over pistol-shot away, but had been so well
have detected it from my stand, but yet the elephants hidden that we had not suspected his presence. He had
had sighted it, even when there was no reason for their been hit in the shoulder, and the ascent was pretty steep.
But for this he would have had us. The man who would
looking about.
I have had a zebra take my scent at a quarter of a attempt to run away from an elephant on foot would be
mile, and a giraffe at a little further. This was when a a corpse in five minutes. They have an amazing gait
moderate breeze was blowing directly toward them. I in the open, and their pace is scarcely impeded by any
don't believe the lion or tiger can scent a human being obstruction in forest or jungle. Nothing smaller than a
over half that distance, and yet, on repeated occasions, tree the size of a man's body will turn them aside. As
I have known the elephant to scent me for over half a the beast trumpeted and started for us we both made
mile on a still day, and that in the heavy jungles, where for the nearest tree. It was a large one, with branches
not a breath of air was stirring. The tame elephant growing well down, but we only got one gun up, and
has a careless look, and seems to pay little attention to were not above fifteen feet from the ground when the
what is going on around him. The wild elephant is elephant reached the spot. He was in a terrible rage.
ever on the alert, and as easily startled as a hare. He His first move was to break off every branch he could
may be said to be without an enemy except man. The reach, and we were not safe until we were twenty-five
natives pester him somewhat, and the rhinoceros will feet above him. He was not over three minutes strip-
now and then attack him, but the rule of the jungle is ping off the branches, and he did not cease his trumpet-
to give way to the elephant. Keen of sight, strong of ing for a second.
limb, and almost as quick in his movements as a horse,
The tree was fifty feet high and eighteen inches
he may well be called king of the animal creation.
through the trunk. When the old fellow had every
One afternoon, while I was cleaning my guns, one of thing cleared away he took hold with his trunk, got a
the natives, who had been out to look for a stray ox, good brace with his feet, and lifted just as a man would.
came running into camp with the information that a I felt the tree tremble from root to top, and I have no
'" solitary " bull elephant was in a grove about a mile doubt that had the monster been free of wound he
and a half away. These solitaries are very ugly old fel- would have pulled it over. As it was, he started some
lows, who have been driven away from the herds for a of the roots when he sagged back with his full weight.
time, and are very dangerous to encounter. I got a He made four or five heavy pulls before he gave up,
gun ready, stuffed a few cartridges into my pocket, and and then he tried another plan. He was quite at liber-
set off on a run, in company with my man. It was a ty to work any way he desired, as I had a cartridge
dull, heavy atmosphere, with no breeze blowing, and it jammed in my gun and was working to get it clear.
is the rule in this case to approach such game from the The old behemoth retreated back about ten rods, and
west. To get to this fellow I had to make a long cir- then came for the tree head on. We knew what was
cuit, but it was made with such care that an antelope coming, and were clinging fast and tight, but the shock
would not have taken the alarm. I savv him at inter- nearly spilled us out. He tried it twice more, and then
vals, but when I reached the spot desired he had disap- gave it up. My extra rifle now caught his eye, and he
peared from the grove. His spoor showed that he had picked it up, whirled it around several times, and then
moved hastily, as if suspicious", and after'following it smash it went against the tree, breaking into a dozen
for a mile I gave up the chase and started for the camp. pieces. I had got'my gun clear by this time, and I now
Our route took us near the grove, and what was my proceeded to put seven ounce bullets into him, one after
astonishment to see that same elephant standing in his the other. He screamed and trumpeted and rushed
old tracks. This time I got a shot at him, but he went around, determined not to give up the fight, but at last
off at such a pace as to discourage me from following. grew faint and dizzy, and went down on his side with a
Why did he leave the grove the first time ? He had crash which made the earth tremble.
neither seen nor scented us. There was nothing to tell
A second instance of elephantine ferocity, combined
him that danger approached. He was, however, obey- with stealth and shrewdness, occurred on that same
ing what I afterward discovered was elephant instinct. trip. Six of us were scattered through a wood in search
These great beasts always act on the theory that they of the signs of the presence of elephants, when a " soli-
are pursued. If they rest for a time in one spot, they tary" snaked out of a jungle where he had been hiding
start up in alarm and go off with a rush when they go, and rushed upon my horse. I was two miles away, but
and it is rarely they rest again until they have traveled one of the natives saw the performance. He said the
twelve or fifteen miles. This fellow had been resting elephant broke cover as stealthily as a man, carefully
two or three hours, and he started up, went off at a trot approaching the horse, and was only a few yards away
for three miles, doubled back like a fox, and was con- when discovered. Then he trumpeted and made a rush.
tentedly feeding when I saw him the second time.
His sudden appearance seemed to strike the horse with
I have often wondered that no hunter or native ever terror, and he made no move to escape. The great
found an elephant who had died by accident or old age. trunk, held aloft as the beast charged, struck the horse
I suppose the explanation is, that when an elephant a "side wipe" and knocked him flat, and he was no
dies in the forest, the wild beasts speedily devour his sooner down than the elephant knelt upon him and
carcass and scatter his bones about; but one would kneaded him into bloody pulp. When his vengeance
naturally suppose that some of these bones would be was satisfied he rose up and retreated to the same
found at some point or other. I have talked with many thicket, sneaking along as if he was seeking to hide his
hunters and natives, and the discovery I once made has trail. It was an hour later when I reached the spot,
.been declared an exception. I was going through an and I was so angry over the death of my steed that
open forest, following in the wake of a troop of ele- nothing the men could say would stop me from enter-
phants which were feeding, when I came upon the ing the thicket in search of the destroyer. Joe followed
skeleton of one stuck fast between two trees. The trees me, bearing a gun, and both of us were ready for any
grew from the same root, but spread several feet apart, trick the beast might be up to, but we were too late.
and in the excitement of an alarm the beast had at- We found the spot where he had stood for hours, and
tempted to pass between them. He was firmly caught from which he had sallied out to attack the horse, but
behind the shoulder, and had been held there until he he had quietly sneaked off. The elephant when pur-
starved to death. Hide and flesh were gone, and the suing an ordinary course through the forest leaves a
bones picked clean and some of them fallen to the broad trail behind him. He breaks down branches, up-
ground, but I secured a magnificent pair of tusks for roots small trees, and the prints of his big feet could
the pulling of them from the fleshless skull. On an- be followed on horseback at a gallop. This fellow had
other occasion I found an old bull lying flat on his side gone off so softly that we were half an hour in picking
on the open plain, and not yet quite dead. He had been up his trail. There was not a broken branch, and he
had set his feet down with the utmost care and selected
wounded by poisoned spears thrown by the natives.
The first thought of a wild elephant is to flee from the hardest soil. After getting a quarter of a mile
danger, but the very first wound inflicted arouses his away he had selected a rocky ridge to travel on, and
temper and makes him a dangerous foe. He may run we soon lost him entirely.
Our camp was about three miles from the spot where
off with the herd after being stuck, but if pursued and
harassed he is quite certain to turn. The first elephant the horse was killed. We always had one guard and a
{Continued on page §2.)
which charged me was the most vicious beast I ever had