The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-01-18
HUNTING THE ELEPHANT.

How the kafiiTs Of SOuth Atrlca NH '"O
 Big Game-Sometimes Destroyed Whole
 sale in Pitfalls, but Usually Hunted Sim
 gly and Worried to Death by Slow,
 Cruel Process-How the Carcass is Cut
 Up and Cooked.
 [From the St. Louis Republic.l
 One of the most successful methods of destroying game by wholesale is an invention of the Kaf1lrs of South Afri- ca, described by MT. Wood in the first volume of his work on "The Uncivi- lized Races of Men" It is nothing more nor less than a remarkable trap called the hopo.
 The hopo is, in fact, very large pit fall, dug out with great labor, and ca pablo of holding vast number of anl- mals. Trunks of trees are laid over It at each end, and similar arrangement is made at the sides, so that kind or overlapping edge is given to it, and beast that has fallen into it cannot pos sibly escape. From this pit two fences diverge in a V-like form, the pit being the apex. These fences are about mile in length, and their eXtremities are a mile or even more apart.
 Many hundreds of hunters then turn out and ingeniously contrive to decoy or drive the herd of game into the treacherous space between the fences They then form themselves into cor don across the open end of the and advance slowly, so as to urge the ami mals onward. A miscellaneous compa- nv of elands, hartebeests, gnoos, ze- bras and other animals is thus driven nearer and nearer to destruction To- ward the angle of the V the fence is narrowed into a kind of lane passage some fifty yards in length. and is made very strongly, so as to prevent the af- frighted animals from breaking through When a number of them have fairly entered the passage the hunters dash forward, yelling at the full stretch of their powerful voices, brandishing their shields and assagais and so certifying the doomed animals that they dash blindly forward and tall into the pit.
 If is useless for those in front to re- coil when they see their danger as tney are pushed onward by their comrades, and in a few minutes the pit IS tull or dead and dying animals, Many of the herd escape when the pit IS qulte run bv passing over the bodies of their fal- len companions, but enough are taken to feast the whole tribe for consider able time
 Sometimes pitfalls are constructed for the receptacle of single animals such as the elephant, the hlppopotanus and the rhinoeerous. Elephants are, or course, the most valuable game that can be taken in these traps because their tusks can be sold at a hlgh price and their flesh supplies a vast quanu- tv of meat. As the elephant IS terrl- ble enemy to their corn fields and store houses, the natives are in the hapll oL guarding the approaches by means ol pitfalls. and at first find their strata gem successful But the elephants are so crafty that they soon learn cautloh from the fate Of their comrades, ana It is as difficult to catch an elephant Tn pitfall as it is to catch an old rat In d trap. Having been accustomed to such succulent repastS, the elephants uo not like to give up their feasts altogether and proceed on their nocturnal eXpedl- tions much as usual. But some or the oldest and wariest of the herd go Tn front. and when they come near the ] cultivated ground they beat the earth with their trunks, not venturlng a step until they have ascertained that theil footing is safe As soon as they come to a pftfall the sound warns them of danger They instantly stop, tear the covering of the pitfall to pieces, and , having thus unmasked it, proceed on their way.
 Occasionally a number of Kaff1rS turn out for the purpose of elephan' hunting. By dint of the wary cautlor : which they can always exercise Wher in pursuit of game, they find out the animal which possesses the finest tusk' and mark all his peculiarities; they then watch the spot where he treads i and by means of lump of soft clay l they take an impression of his foot 3 marks. Their reason for doing so i simple enough, viz, that if they should have to chase him they may not ruf the risk of confounding his footmark with those of other elephants. Int sole of every elephants foot IS tra versed by a number of indented lines and in no two specimens are these line alike The clay model of the root prints serves them as guide whereb! 1 they may assure themselves that the, l are on the right track whenever the come to the neighborhood of water 7 where the ground is soft, and wher
 the footprints of many elephants ar sure to be found.
 Their next endeavor is to creep nea
 enough to the elephant to inflict se
 were wound upon it, an object which l
 generally attained by number of tn
 dark hunters gliding among the tree t and simultaneously hurling thei . spears at the unsuspecting animal l The wounded elephant is nearly certail
 to charge directly at the spot iron
 which he fancies that the assault ha
 been made, and his shriek of mingle'
 rage and alarm is sure to cause tn
 rest of the herd to rush off in terror
 The hunters then try by various strat
 agems to isolate the wounded anima | from its comrades, and to prevent hin = from reioining them, while at every op portunity assagais are thrown, and tn
 elephant is never permitted to rest.
 As a wounded elephant always make
 for the bush it would be quite saf