3! 8 THE ELEPHANT. [Part VIIT. 



unerring confidence so soon as the grains shall have 

 begun to ripen ; and although the crop comes to matu- 

 rity at a different period in different districts, the herd 

 are certain to be seen at each in succession, as soon as 

 it is ready to be cut. In these weU-timed excursions, 

 they resemble the bison of North America, which, by a 

 similarly mysterious instinct, finds its way to those 

 portions of the distant prames, where accidental fires 

 have been followed by a gsowth of tender grass. Al- 

 though the fences around these chenas are httle more 

 than hues of reeds loosely fastened together, they are 

 sufficient, with the presence of a single watcher, to 

 prevent the entrance of the elephants, who wait 

 patiently till the rice and coracan have been removed, 

 and the watcher withdrawn ; and, then finding gaps in 

 the fence, they may be seen gleaning among the leav- 

 ings and the stubble ; and they take their departure 

 when these are exhausted, apparently in the dh-ection 

 of some other chena, which they have ascertained to be 

 about to be cut. 



There is something still unexplained in the di^ead 

 which an elephant always exhibits on approacliing a 

 fence, and the reluctance which he displays to face the 

 shghtest artificial obstruction to his passage. In the 

 fine old tank of Tissa-weva, close by Anarajapoora, the 

 natives cultivate grain, dming the dry season, around the 

 margin where the ground has been left bare by the 

 subsidence of the water. These httle patches of rice 

 they enclose with small sticks an inch in diameter and 

 five or six feet in height, such as would scarcely serve 

 to keep out a wild hog if he attempted to force his way 

 through. Passages of fi'om ten to twenty feet wide are 

 left between each field, to permit the "svild elephants 

 which abound in the vicinity, to make their nocturnal 

 visits to the water remaining in the tank. Night after 

 night these open pathways arc fi'equented by immense 

 herds, but the tempting corn is never touched, nor is a 



