174 ^-^^^ JVild Elephant. 



nervous processes traverse the tusk by means of the 

 numerous tubes ah-eady described, if attacked by caries 

 the pain occasioned to the elephant would be excruciating. 



As to maintaining a stud of elephants for the purposes 

 to which they are now assigned in Ceylon, there may 

 be a question on the score of prudence and economy. 

 In the wild and unopened parts of the country, where 

 rivers are to be forded, and forests are only traversed 

 by jungle paths, their labour is of value, in certain 

 contingencies, in the conveyance of stores, and in the 

 earlier operations for the construction of fords and 

 rough bridges of timber. But in more highly civilised 

 districts, and wherever macadamised roads admit of the 

 employment of horses and oxen for draught, I appre- 

 hend that the services of the elephant might, with ad- 

 vantage, be gradually reduced, if not altogether dispensed 

 with. 



The love of the elephant for coolness and shade 

 renders it at all times more or less impatient of work 

 in the sun, and every moment of leisure it can snatch 

 is employed in covering its back with dust, or fanning 

 itself to diminish the annoyance of the insects and heat. 

 From the tenderness of the skin and its liability to sores, 

 the labour in which the elephant can most advantageously 

 be employed is that of draught ; but the reluctance of 

 horses to meet or pass them renders it difficult to work 

 them with safety on frequented roads. Besides, were 

 the full load which an elephant is capable of drawing, 

 proportionally to its muscular strength, to be placed 

 upon waggons of corresponding dimension, the injury to 



