i4t> The Wild Elephant. 



Before proceeding to catch the remainder we requested 

 that the smaller trees and jungle, which partially ob 

 structed our view, might be broken away, being no 

 longer essential to screen the entrance to the corral ; and 

 five of the tame elephants were brought up for the pur- 

 pose. They felt the strength of each tree with their 

 trunks, _ then swaying it backwards and forwards, by 

 pushing it with their foreheads, they watched the oppor- 

 tunity when it was in full swing to raise their fore-feet 

 against the stem, and bear it down to the ground. ' Then 

 tearing off the festoons of climbing plants, and trampling 

 down the smaller branches and brushwood, they pitched 

 them with their tusks, piling them into heaps along the 

 side of the fence. 



Amongst the last that was secured was the solitary 

 individual belonging to the fugitive herd. When the 

 tame one attempted to drag him backwards from the 

 tree near which he was noosed, he laid hold of it with 

 his trunk and lay down on his side immoveable. The 

 temple tusker and another were ordered up to assist, and 

 it required the combined efforts of the three elephants 

 to force him along. When dragged to the place at which 

 he was to be tied up, he continued the contest with 

 desperation, and to prevent the second noose being 

 placed on his foot, he sat down on his haunches, almost 

 in the attitude of the " Florentine Boar," keeping his 

 hind-feet beneath him, and defending his fore-feet with 

 his trunk, with which he flung back the rope as often as 

 it was attempted to attach it. 



' This is precisely the action ascribed levelling palm trees. Dc Anitn. Hist. 

 hy Aristotle to the elephant, when 1. ix. c. 2. 



