Chaf. YI.] conduct IX CAPTIVITY. 395 



Of diseased liver 1 



Injuries from a fall ......... 1 



General debility ......... 1 



Unknown • 3 



Of the whole, twenty-three were females, and eleven 

 males. 



The ages of those that died could not be accurately 

 stated, ov^ng to the circumstance of their having been 

 captured in corral. Only two were tuskers. Towards 

 keeping the stud in health, nothing has been found so 

 conducive as regularly bathing the elephants, and giving 

 them the opportunity to stand with their feet in water 

 or in moistened earth. 



On the whole, there may be a question as to the 

 prudence or economy of maintaining a stud of elephants 

 for the purposes to which they are now assigned in 

 Ceylon. In the rude and imopened 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 earher operations for the construction of 

 fords and rough bridges of timber. But in more highly 

 civihsecl districts, and wherever macadamised roads ad- 

 mit of the employment of horses and oxen for draught, 

 I apprehend that the services of elephants might, with 

 advantage, be gradually reduced, if not altogether dis- 

 pensed with. 



The love of the elephant for coolness and shade 

 renders him at all times more or less impatient of work 

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

 is employed in covering his back with dust, or fanning 

 himself to diminish the annoyance of the insects and 

 heat. From the tenderness of his skin and its lia- 

 bihty to sores, the labour in which he can most ad- 

 vantageously be employed is that of draught; but the 

 reluctance of horses to meet or pass elephants renders 

 it difficult to work the latter with safety on frequented 

 roads. Besides, were the full load which an elephant 



