Chap. IV.] AN ELEPHANT COKKAL. 337 



the north and north-east of the island, and from time 

 immemorial have been engaged in taking elephants, 

 which are afterwards trained by Arabs, chiefly for the 

 use of the rajahs and native princes in the south of India, 

 whose vakeels are periodically despatched to make pm^- 

 chases in Ceylon. 



The abihty evinced by these men in tracing elephants 

 through the woods has almost the certainty of instinct ; 

 and hence their services are eagerly sought by the 

 Eiu-opean sportsmen who go down into their countiy in 

 search of game. So keen is their glance, that almost at 

 the top of their speed, hke hounds running " breast 

 high" they will follow the course of an elephant, over 

 glades covered with stunted grass, where the eye of a 

 stranger would fail to discover a trace of its passage, 

 and on through forests strewn with dry leaves, Avhere 

 it seems impossible to perceive a footstep. Here they 

 are guided by a bent or broken twig, or by a leaf 

 dropped from the animal's mouth, on which they can 

 detect the pressure of a tooth. If at feult, they fetch a 

 circuit hke a setter, till hghting on some fresh marks, 

 then go a head again with renewed vigour. So dehcate 

 is the sense of smell in the elephant, and so indispensable 

 is it to go against the wind in approaching him, that 

 the Panickeas, on those occasions, when the "wind is so 

 still that its direction cannot be otherwise discerned, will 

 suspend the film of a gossamer to determine it and shape 

 their course accordingly. 



They are enabled by the inspection of the footmarks, 

 when impressed in soft clay, to describe the size as well 

 as the number of a herd before it is seen ; the height 

 of an elephant at the shoulder being as nearly as possible 

 twice the ckcumference of his fore foot.^ 



^ Previous to the death of the j 1851, Mr. Mitchell, the Secretary, 

 female elephant in the Zoological i caused the measurements to be accu- 

 Gardens, in the Regent's Park, in | rately made^ and found the statement 

 VOL. II. Z 



