The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1890-02-15
THE ELEPHANTS FATE
It Is Similar to That Which Has
Overtaken the Buffalo.
The Great African Pachyderm Now "But
as Grass" and the Places That Have
Known Him VIII Soon "Kn0w
Him No Mor~"-The Work
of determination.


At the beginning of this century, says the
st. James Gazette, the elephant was found
plentifully upon the eastern confines and
in the southern forest belt of the Cape Col
ony. AS lately as 1880 ivory hunters pur-
sued their calling in the dense bush veldt
of the Eastern Province, and still later in
Kaffraria. But the Cape Government, fore
seeing the probability of the mighty beasts
extinction within few years, proclaimed
measures OF protection; and it is q curious
fact that there exist at the present moment,
within the southeastern limits of Cape Col
ony-within sight Of the Indian Ocean
more wild elephants than are to be found
for probably fifteen hundred miles inland.
In Addo Bush, not far from Port Elizabeth,
in the Knysna and Zitzikamina forests, and
upon the jungle slopes of the Winterheck
Mountains, troops of elephants yet wander
free and undisturbed, as also does the
fierce and gloomy buffalo, and that king of
antelopes, the Koodoo. Beyond the Ker,
in Kaffrara itself, where fostering protect
i've laws have not extended, the elephant is
extinct sws.--
Passing eastward through Natal, once
abounding In but now devoid Of elephants,
we reach Zululand. In that territory be-
tween 1850 and 1875 immense numbers of
the great pachyderm were hunted and de-
stroyed. Baldwin, Drummond and other
wellknoWn nimrods, besides a numerous
array OF obscure but quite as deadly Dutch
and colonial professional hunters, have
practically wrought extinction in the Zulu
country. North of the Zulus, in Amatonga-
iahd' the same state of things exists, with
tne dinerence that some numbers of ele-
phants driven by the incurslve gold diggers
and prospectors Of Swaziland from their
ancient secluded haunts in that TERRITORY.
nave recently trekked south across the
Amatonga border. Here their extermina-
tlon must soon follow. 1t is probable that
the country most abounding in the poor
remnant OF elephants now. south of the
zambesi is the unhealthy region lying east
and northeast of the Transvaal border
much OF it known as Umzilaland. Here the
prevalence of deadly fever in the hot
months and the tse-tse fly have alone
prevented Dutch hunters from completing
their work of destruction; but even here
the supply Of elephant life is now sparse
and limited and can not long hold out. The
orange Free State, from the treeless, open
nature of its terrain, although formerly
crowded with other game, was never a
haunt OF elephants. But not so with the
iransvaal. Here in 1887 Captain Corn
wallis Harris, one of the first to explore the
neautiIul but unknown wilds then held by
the fierce Moselikatze and his Matabeles,
found elephants in astounding plenty. In
one valley alone he saw wandering in peace
iui seclusion hundreds of the gray beasts.
nuI close on the heels of Harris followed
.ne Doer Voertrekkers, who, having at
-aoAed and driven out Moselkatze, turned
sneT attention to the extraordinary
weaith OF ivory within their new
FOUND borders. Their labors have been but
Ioo successful, and there now remains to
xast territories of the South African
nSont pro Dably not one solitary wild ele-
rro ons ~, nave vanished. North of the
bo oo.e' aai he Matabele and Mashonalands,
tho Sn.ry Sny now ruled by Lodengula, son
,at t,,,.e. -. oaneo Moselikatze. So recently as
ntod ~. io'l ana 1875 these lands were ten
hs M "sS numbers of elephants But,
ellie no :. y. oeious, the well-known hunter,
Eno :" us now difficult in a years hunt
thesa ~ oouie across single elephant in
$50 $50 countries. Mr.. Selous himself. the
Fotber .;. eiephant hunter of these or any
mart ~ nes, .a VINO has devoted the greatest
toll toll au ~ 1ae last seventeen years to the fierce
and and "na tha countless dangers Of ivory hunting,
ers ,uhs uhe numerous Dutch and other hunt
mnch mn VINO 40 haye ravaged the country, have
aftsn n u. 70 answer for in this matter But,
meut. @ all they have been but the instru-
ceas;H % . ., supply to a pitiless and never
samn u,n,ng westward to Bechuanaland the
mino,s MINI s'ory has to be told. In Gordon Cum
nom . time-1S46 to 1s5O-Bamanpwato,
the " h,,l ru,ed by Khama, was a veldt virgin to
one 1tser. ot 4s Gordon Cumming himself was
wei, In sae FIRST to exploit it, and by him, Os-
win ano Vardon, and afterward by Bald
wror,aa m una others, great execution was
to usnt Nv among the elephants, even as far
buu.e.w e west as Lake NGami. Professional
lan nave, since Gordon Cummings
tirnsto rn' completed absolutely the work of ex-
A. a,tnA pa'on in these lands. In one wear alone, |
,sr I.ivir .ne discovery of Lake NGami (1s4s), |
limestone tells us that nine hundred ele-
,ara a'S We're @ slain in the region of the Great
Me h0ns, What wealth of animal life, al
A'akn backed by countleas vo. "a ~ undis