388 



THE ELEPHANT. 



[Part VIIT. 



trees, has never been equalled or approached by any- 

 thing I have seen of the elephant in Ceylon ' or heard 

 of them in India. Of course much must depend on 

 the natm^e of the timber and the moisture of the soil ; 

 a strong tree on the verge of a swamp may be over- 

 thrown with greater ease than a small and low one in 

 parched and sohd ground. I have seen no "tree" de- 

 serving the name, nothing but jungle and brushwood, 

 thrown down by the mere movement of an elephant 

 without some special exertion of force. But he is by 

 no means fond of gratuitously tasldng liis strength ; 

 and his food being so abundant that he obtains it "s\dth- 

 out an effort, it is not altogether apparent, even were 

 he able to do so, why he should assail " the largest trees 

 in the forest," and encumber his own haunts with their 

 broken stems ; especially as there is scarcely anytliing 

 which an elephant more dishkes than to venture amongst 

 fallen timber. 



A tree of twelve inches in diameter resisted success- 

 fidly the most strenuous struggles of the largest ele- 

 phant I saw led to it in a corral ; and when directed by 



^ '^ Here tlie trees were large and 

 handsome, but not strong enough to 

 resist the inconceivable strength of 

 the mightj' monarch of these forests ; 

 almost every tree had half its bran- 

 ches broken short by them, and at 

 every himdred yards I came upon 

 entire trees, and these, the largest in 

 the forest, uprooted clean out of the 

 gi'oimd, and broken short across their 

 sterns.''^ — A Hunter'' s Life in South 

 Africa. By R. Goedon Cumiitxg, 

 Tol. ii. p. 305. — " Spreading out from 

 one another, they smash and destroy 

 all the finast trees in the forest which 

 happen to be in their course. . . . 

 I have rode through forests where 

 the ti'ees thus broken lay so thick 

 across one another, that it was almost 

 impossible to ride through the dis- 

 trict."— 26/f/. p. .310. 



Mr. Gordon Cumming does not 

 name the trees whicli he saw thus 

 ''uprooted" and "broken across," nor 



has he given any idea of their size 

 and weight; but Major DENHAM,who 

 observed like traces of the elephant 

 in Africa, saw only small trees over- 

 thro-^-n by them ; and jNIr. PKrN'GLE, 

 who had an opportunity of observing 

 similar practices of the animals in 

 the neuti'al territory of the Eastern 

 frontier of the Cape of Good Hope, 

 describes their ravages as being con- 

 tined to the mimosas, '' immense 

 numbers of which had been torn out 

 of the ground and placed in an in- 

 verted position, in order to enable 

 tlie animals to browse at their ease 

 on the soft and juicy roots, which 

 form a favourite part of their food. 

 Many of the larger mimosas had re- 

 sisted all their efforts ; and indeed it is 

 onli/ after heavi/ rain, when the soil is 

 soft and loose, that they ever suc- 

 cessfulhf attempt this operatioti." — 

 Piungle's Sketches of South Africa. 



