The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-04-03 00:00:00

ELEPHANTS IN SOUTH AFRICA.

A Port Elizabeth, Cape of Good Hope, paper says :
It seems almost incredible, that with the large
amount of traffic constantly carried on between the
bay and up-country towns, droves of wild elephants
yet exist within a distance of 30 miles from Port
Elizabeth. Those who have travelled along ale line
may have observed, when crossing the railway bridge
over the Sunday's River, there stands a neat-looking
farm-house in the valley to the left or western side of
the line.. At this house lives a farmer named Pienaar,
together with his family. His son, Gert. married,
28 years of age, also lives on the same homestead.
On Tuesday afternoon Gert., in company with
three other farmers, had gone out with the
intention of shooting one or more of a troop
of elephants which had made their appearance
in the neighbourhood, or, failing success in that respect,
of driving them away from the locality, as the tremen-
dous brutes are most mischievous on arable lands,
breaking down fences and trampling mealies and
plants into the earth. It appears that on coming
across some of the elephants they fired upon them,
when a cow haying a calf, charged the party, who im-
mediately separated. She made a full tilt at one of the
men, who, fortunately for him, fell into a hollow, and
the brute passed on, but in retracing her steps she
came in sight of poor Pienaar, whom she caught in a
thicket, and seizing hold of him round the body with
her trunk threw him into the air. He fell upon a
branch and thence on the ground, dislocating his neck
in the fall. On Saturday a party of farmers fired at
another elephant across the river' but the bullet had
little effect upon the thick hide of the brute

On Sunday last, Mr. P. W. Court had quite an
adventure. He was out riding over his farm Tanka-
tara, with his manager, Mr. Guy, looking at his crops,
when on reaching the mealie fields, he discovered the
spoor of a large elephant. The brute had broken
through the fences, and trampled down the mealies to
a most provoking extent. They rode on, however, and
passing through the thick bush saw several spoors of
elephants, one of which was quite fresh. At length,
fancying they were getting unpleasantly near they
turned back along the narrow path. They had ridden
some distance when they came upon a fresh spoor, and
shortly after, very close to them, they noticed a
dark object standing ott from the bush. At first
sight Mr. Court took it for a waggon with a dark-
coloured sail, but looking more intently, saw that it
was a monster bull elephant, with long tusks, and
having its eyes peering towards them in a somewhat
alarming manner. The two gentlemen rode off through
a bye-path, and by a circuitous journey arrived at the
homestead about nine o'clock at night, when they
found that much apprehension had been excited in
regard to their safety as the elephants had been
observed by ethers during the afternoon.

It is, we believe, quite unprecedented for elephants
to have been seen on this side of the Sunday's River,
though they occasionally Make their appearance in the
Addo Bush. They seem to travel down southwards
in times of drought for the purpose of obtaining water,
which is generally to be found in the Sunday's River
after other streams have fa;led.