Chap. VI.] 



COXDUCT IX CAPTIVITY. 



397 



nine-pence, and calculating that liarcUy any individual 

 works more than four days out of seven, the charge for 

 each day so employed would be equal to sLv shillings 

 and sixpence. The keep of a powerful dray horse, 

 working five days in the week, would not exceed half- 

 a-crown, and two such would unquestionably do more 

 work than any elephant under the present system. I 

 do not know whether it be from a comparative calcu- 

 lation of this kind that the strength of the elephant 

 establishments in Ceylon has been gradually diminished 

 of late years, but iu the department of tlie Commis- 

 sioner of Eoads, the stud, which formerly numbered 

 upwards of sixty elephants, has been reduced of late 

 years to thirty-six, and is at present less than half that 

 number. 



The fallacy of the supposed reluctance of the elephant 

 to breed in capti\dty has been demonstrated by many 

 recent authorities ; but with the exception of the buth 

 of young elephants at Eome, as mentioned by ^lian, the 

 only instances that I am aware of theu" actually produc- 

 ing young under such circumstances, took place in Ceylon. 

 Both parents had been for several years attached to the 

 stud of the Commissioner of Roads, and in 1844 the 

 female, whilst engaged in dragging a waggon, gave butli 

 to a still-born calf. Some years before, an elephant, 

 which had been captured by Mr. Cripps, di^opped a 

 female calf, which he succeeded in rearing. As usual, 

 the little one became the pet of the keepers ; but as it in- 

 creased in growth, it exhibited the utmost violence when 



luxuries. Pine-apples, water melons, 

 and fruits of every description, are 

 voraciously devoured, and a coco-nut 

 when foimd is first rolled under foot 

 to detach it from the husk and fibre, 

 and then raised in his trunk and 

 crushed, almost without an eftbrt of 

 his ponderous jaws. 



The gi'asses are not found in suf- 

 ficient quantity to be an item of his 

 daily fodder; the Mauiitius or the 



Guinea gi-ass is seized with avidity ; 

 lemon <a'ass is rejected from its over- 

 powering perfume, but rice in the 

 straw, and every description of gi'ain, 

 whether gi'owing or diy ; grain 

 (Cicer arietimun), Indian corn, and 

 millet are his natural food. Of such 

 of these as can be found, it is the 

 duty of the leaf-cutters, when in the 

 jungle and on march; to provide a 

 daily supply. 



