394 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 



deliberate and brooding resolve to wage war on everything, 

 BO that the animal patiently lies in wait for travellers, 

 rushing from his ambush only when he finds that the 

 latter are within his power. As showing the cold-blooded 

 determination of this murderous desire, I may quote 

 the following case, as it was communicated to Sir E. 

 Tennent : 



We had, says the writer, calculated to come np with the 

 brute where it had been seen half an hour before; but no sooner 

 had one of our men, who was walking foremost, seen the animal 

 at the distance of some fifteen or twenty fathoms, than he ex- 

 claimed, ' There ! there ! ' and immediately took to his heels, 

 and we all followed his example. The elephant did not see ua 

 until we had run some fifteen or twenty paces from the spot 

 where we turned, when he gave us chase, screaming frightfully 

 as he came on. The Englishman managed to climb a tree, and 

 the rest of my companions did the same ; as for myself, I could 

 not, although I made one or two superhuman efforts. But there 

 was no time to be lost. The elephant was running at me with 

 his trunk bent down in a curve towards the ground. At this 

 critical moment Mr. Lindsay held oxit his foot to me, with the 

 help of which and then of the branches of the tree, which were 

 three or four feet above my head, I managed to scramble up to 

 a branch. The elephant came directly to the tree and attempted 

 to force it down, which he could not. He first coiled his trunk 

 round the stem, and pulled it with all his might, but with no 

 effect. He then applied his head to the tree, and pushed for 

 several minutes, but with no better success. He then trampled 

 with his feet all the projecting roots, moving, as he did so, several 

 times round and round the tree. Lastly, failing in all this, and 

 seeing a pile of timber, which I had lately cut, at a short dis- 

 tance from us, he removed it all (thirty-six pieces) one at a time 

 to the root of the tree, and piled them up in a regular business- 

 like manner ; then placing his hind feet on this pile, he raised 

 the fore part of his body, and reached out his trunk, but still lie 

 could not touch us, as we were too far above him. The English- 

 man then fired, and the ball took effect somewhere on the 

 elephant's head, but did not kill him. It made him only the 

 more furious. The next shot, however, levelled him to the 

 ground. I afterwards brought the skull of the animal to Colombo, 

 and it is still to be seen at the house of Mr. Armitage. 1 



1 Natural History of Ceylon, p. 140. 



