AN ELEPHANT HUNT 173

They stopped by the dead elephant, when, witha right
and left shot, I settled two more. The remainder
only went a few yards and then stood still, not know-
ing which way to go on account of the noise made by
the boys. The last cartridge of the 12-bore dropped
another. Taking the Martini I killed three more, at
the cost of five cartridges, before the remaining four
broke away across the country. This was the quickest
and most successful bit of shooting I ever got in
Africa. I do not think it lasted five minutes. All
the elephants dropped with a single bullet, when hit
fairly in the forehead, the Martini having more pene-
tration than the 12-bore: In the case of those shot in
the side of the head, the bullet did not penetrate to
the brain, so after falling they got up again, requiring
a second to finish them.’

STRENIA.—This is the mermaid order, the fact
of the females rising breast-high out of the sea to
suckle their young having originated the well-known
legend. The order nowadays is of little importance,
but it is of great interest, and was much more exten-
sive in the past. Owing to the absence of the hind
limbs it was once included with Cetacea, which it
resembles in very few other respects. The sirenians
are vegetarians and feed on seaweeds, but are rarely
found in the open sea. They have smallish, rounded
heads, horny palates, fleshy bristly lips—the upper one
prehensile —and large nostrils. Like the cetaceans,
they have no pisiform bone in the wrist, but, unlike
them, some have traces of nails on their fingers.
None of them have a back-fin, and some of them