he men.
They vanished at right angles to her course, or sideways, and, as she
ran straight on, she went through the whole party, but came near no one
except a man who wore a piece of cloth on his shoulders. Bright clothing
is always dangerous in these cases. She charged three or four times,
and, except in the first instance, never went farther than 100 yards.
She often stood after she had crossed a rivulet, and faced the men,
though she received fresh spears. It was by this process of spearing and
loss of blood that she was killed; for at last, making a short charge,
she staggered round and sank down dead in a kneeling posture. I did
not see the whole hunt, having been tempted away by both sun and moon
appearing unclouded. I turned from the spectacle of the destruction of
noble animals, which might be made so useful in Africa, with a feeling
of sickness, and it was not relieved by the recollection that the ivory
was mine, though that was the case. I regretted to see them killed, and
more especially the young one, the meat not being at all necessary at
that time; but it is right to add that I did not feel sick when my own
blood was up the day before. We ought, perhaps, to judge those deeds
more leniently in which we ourselves have no temptation to engage. Had
I not been previously guilty of doing the very same thing, I might have
prided myself on superior humanity when I experienced the nausea in
viewing my men kill these two.

The elephant first killed was a male, not full grown; his height at the
withers, 8 feet 4 inches; circumference of the fore foot, 44 inches * 2
= 7 feet 4 inches. The female was full grown, and measured in height 8
feet 8 inches; circumference of the fore foot, 48 inches * 2 = 8 feet
(96 inches). We afterward found that full-grown male elephants of this
region ranged in height at the withers from 9 feet 9 inches to 9 feet 10
inches, and the circumference of the fore foot to be 4 feet 9-1/2 inches
* 2 = 9 feet 7 inches. These details are given because the general rule
has been observed that twice the circumference of the impression made
by the fore foot on the ground is the height of the animal. The print on
the ground, being a little larger than the foot itself, would thus seem
to be an accurate mode of measuring the size of any elephant that has
passed; but the above measurements show that it is applicable only to
full-grown animals. The greater size of the African elephant in the
south would at