6o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



small mules, or asses ; to five stout pack-mules or bullocks, and to 

 three and one third of a camel. Under such a load the elephant 

 travels at a fair speed, keeping well up with an ordinary army or 

 baggage train, requiring no made road, few guards, and occupying 

 less depth in column than other animals. He is invaluable in 

 jungle country and all roadless regions where heavy loads are to 

 be moved. In Burmah, and on the east and southeast frontier, 

 elephants are absolutely necessary for military supply. When 

 once a good road is made the beast is, of course, easily beaten by 

 wheeled carriages. 



He shines most as a special Providence when the cattle of a 

 baggage-train or the horses of a battery are stalled in a bog or 

 struggling helplessly at a steep place. An elej^hant's tusk and 

 trunk serve at once as lever, screw-jack, dog-hooks, and crane, 

 quickly setting overturned carts and gun-carriages right, lifting 

 them by main force or dragging them in narrow, winding defiles, 

 where a long team can not act ; while his head, protected by a 

 pad, is a ram of immense force and superior handiness. 



A born forester, it is in jungle-work that the laboring elephant, 

 outside Government service, is seen at his best. The tea-planters 

 of Assam and Ceylon find him useful in forest-clearing and as a 

 pack-animal. They even yoke him to the plow. He is the leading 

 hand in the teak trade of Burmah — unrivaled in the heavy toil of 

 the timber-yard, where he piles logs with wonderful neatness and 

 quickness. Small timbers are carried on the tusks, chipped over 

 and held fast by the trunk. A log with a thick butt is seized with 

 judicious appreciation of balance, while long and heavy "Balks are 

 levered and pushed into place. 



The truth about the camel's character has often been debated. 

 He is wonderful, and in his own way beautiful to look at, and his 



Fig. 10. — Rajput Camkl-rider's Belt. 



patience, strength, speed, and endurance are beyond all praise. 

 The camel-riders of Rajputana and central India, mounted on 

 animals of a swift breed, cover almost incredible distances at high 

 speed, finding it necessary to protect themselves against the rock- 

 ing motion by broad leather belts, tightly buckled, which are 

 often covered with velvet and prettily broidered in silk. Even 

 they, who know the beast at his best, never pretend to like their 



