172 MAMMALS

only be compared to the steady and rapid advance of
an engine on a line of rail.’

According to Darwin, the elephant is reckoned
the slowest breeder of all known animals. He says: ‘I
have taken some pains to know its probable minimum
rate of natural increase ; it will be under the mark to
assume that it begins breeding when thirty years old,
and goes on breeding till ninety years old, bringing
forth three pair of young in this interval ; if this be so,
at the end of the fifth century there would be alive
fifteen million elephants, descended from the first
pair. But the ivory-hunter and the sportsman are
doing their best to render any increase at all impos-
sible, and the African elephant is fast on the road to
extinction. We have even recently an instance of one
hunter killing seven elephants in five minutes. But
Mr. Henry Bailey may as well tell the story for him-
self.

‘The chief, he says, ‘pointed out an elephant
resting against a tree close to the river. His colour
so much. resembled that of the tree, and he was so
immovable that for some time I could not make him
out, until at length I spotted his great ear flapping
backwards and forwards. Perceiving that it was a
very unfavourable place for getting at them, I retired,
crossed the river, and took up a position above them
on the steep bank. At this spot I was within twenty
yards of them, and could see all their heads and backs
plainly. Selecting the bull with the largest tusks, 1
dropped him by a shot above the eye. Seeing him
fall, the others ran down stream, but came back on
hearing the carriers, who were collected there talking.