MEN OF TPiE TREES 



ceptionally large log which weighed twelve tons and 

 required 150 labourers to haul it, even on level ground. 



It may be asked, "Why are such primitive methods 

 employed?" The fact is that caterpillars and tractors 

 have been tried out and since abandoned as being im- 

 practicable. The ground is generally very soft, and a 

 large tractor has a tendency to embed itself in the soil. 

 The logs are too large to be transported on overhead 

 ropeways. Again, the trees are very much scattered, and 

 the cost would be prohibitive if a light railway were 

 taken to each one. 



It may be in the near future that elephants will be 

 trained to assist man in the laborious task of hauling 

 these huge logs over the soft parts of the forest. For a 

 long time it was imagined that the African elephant 

 could not be tamed, though it is generally granted that 

 it was the African elephant that Hannibal used in his 

 campaigns. In the Congo forests, the Belgians are now 

 successfully training the elephant for forest work. Ma- 

 houts have been brought from India — men accustomed 

 from their boyhood to train and work with these noble 

 allies, but their task is a difficult one, and many months 

 elapse before the African elephant allows himself to 

 submit to being mounted and pressed into forest 

 service. 



When the logs are brought to the trolley line, one 

 end is raised by jacks, sufficiently high to allow the trucks 

 to be run underneath. The log is then lowered into posi- 



178 



