Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1902-12-18
This plan worked well.

me, as l remember II now, tnat nao
them with me.
Then it was that a most remark
able thing occurred. You know what
will happen If you place a number of
moving bodies at an equal distance
from each other, upon the circumfer-
ence of a circle and start them to-
ward the center? Well, that is just
what happened in this case! Those
elephants in the lead reached the cir
conference of the smaller circle at
precisely the same instant, and there
they stuck, utterly unable to approach
an inch nearer!
Not only had the terrific momen-
tum Of their huge bodies served to
wedge them tightly together, but be-
hind the elephants comprising the
inner circle were scores and scores
of others, each possessed by an I'M
comfortable desire to get at the some
thing which formed the center of the
circle of which they were the cir
conference, and serving to hold fast
in their positions the elephants on the
inner circle.
Conceive, if you can, the picture
OF two men seated upon the carcass
of a dead elephant, surrounded by a
living circle of other elephants, and
these in turn pushed and crowded and
wedged in still more tightly by hun
dreds of others! The elephants on
the inner circle might as well have
been trees, SO far as their powers of
locomotion were concerned. With al
most over-powering trumpetings, they
swayed from side to side, flashing
each other with their trunks in their
rage, but absolutely unable to stir
either forward or backward. Al
though l had, but few moments be-
fore, resigned myself TO a speedy and
apparently inevitable death, the hui
NOR of the situation now struck me,
and l rolled from the carcass in
violent paroxysm of laughter.
"To make long story short, it was
simple matter, considering the po-
sition in which we had the herd, to
finish a few of the elephants nearest
us by wel1-directed shots from my re-
volvers, as a bullet penetrating the
eye would readily reach the brain. We
had killed perhaps half a dozen In
this manner, the bodies retaining
their upright position in the circle
through the pressure of others, when
Umbolalla reminded me that the re-
naming revolver cartridges might
better be saved, and that we could
kill the elephants as well with his
assegai. His plan was to climb upon
the backs of the elephants, place the
head of the assegai over the spinal
cord at the point where it enters the
skull, and using the heavy elephant
gun as a sledge, drive it home. This
plan we found upon trial worked
well. and after seven hours incessant
labor we had stilled the trumpeting,
and out of that vast herd not one re-
manned alive.
Returning to Mpweto we enjoyed
the nights rest, and in the morning I
had no difficulty, such is the simpli-
city of the African native, in arrang-
ing a trade with Chief Mugbokuku,
whereby l gave his tribe the car
cases of the elephants in exchange
for the services of his men in remov-
ing the tusks and carrying them to a
point on the Nile at which transpor-
tation to Cairo could be secured.
From Cairo, two months later, l re-
shipped the tusks taken from the 46S
elephants to Copenhagen, where the
ivory was disposed of at a profit Of
$500. 900.