ELEPHANT 



407 



locks than it does in carrying. In using a team of 

 horses, the proportional expense increases, and that 

 at a pretty rapid rate; in proportion to the number 

 used. The reason of this is obvious : the horses can- 

 not by possibility pull exactly together, however 

 nicely they may be matched in point of size and 

 strength. This will hold good in the case of two, and 

 much more in the case of a greater number ; so that 

 the greater the number in every horse team, the greater 

 the expense of every pound weight that that team 

 pulls along. This is a disadvantage in the employ- 

 ment of combinations of small animals of which no 

 ingenuity and skill can get the better ; and though it 

 is not very apparent in countries which are intersected 

 in every direction by roads planned on the most 

 scientific principles and executed and kept in repair 

 in the best manner (which might be, if it is not, the 

 case in England) ; yet if we are to suppose a country 

 where such roads cannot be generally made or main- 

 tained, then we can understand something of the value 

 of such an animal as the elephant. 



There was a time when most of the merchandise 

 and produce, which was carried inland in England, had 

 to be carried on pack horses ; and then if the distance 

 was a hundred miles, or even fifty, the price of the 

 carriage was nearly equal to that of the common pro- 

 duce of the earth ; and thus, the several districts of 

 the country were cut off from each other ; and it was 

 no uncommon occurrence for the people of one district 

 to be dying of famine, while there was an abundant 

 surplus in another district, but no means of fetching 

 that surplus to the needy of which the expense could 

 at all be borne. 



India is a country which from its geographical for- 

 mation, its physical character, and its vast extent, can 

 never be intersected by wheel-carriage roads as Eng- 

 land is. In the first place taking the mere extent 

 the wealth of the world would not suffice for making 

 the requisite length of roads for such a country. In 

 the second place, the transition from the lower districts 

 to the higher in southern India is so abrupt, tha 

 wheel-carriage roads are in many instances entirely 

 out of the question ; so much so that after the British 

 armies had laboured as much as they could at th 

 making of such roads, they found it necessary to dis 

 mount their guns from the carriages, and call in the 

 assistance of the elephant to pull them up. In the 

 third place, the rains in India, when they do come 

 come with such violence, especially upon the steep 

 where the construction of roads is most expensive, tha 

 they uproot the trees and tear the rocks in pieces 

 and of course no road, let it be constructed as i 

 may, could withstand the violence. Many place 

 of India must therefore, of necessity, always remair 

 what we may call a burthen country ; and as eithe 

 for a carriage on the back, or a dead pull, a 

 elephant concentrates into one effort a power equa 

 to that of a great number of other animals, th 

 elephant must become more valuable in India, in pro 

 portion as the country improves. Since the Britis 

 ascendancy was complete, India is in a fairer way t 

 improvement than it ever was at any period of it 

 history, long as that history is. It is now safe fron 

 those external invasions by which it was so often an 

 so cruelly plundered in former times : and we ma 

 hope that it is equally safe from those internal com 

 motions which were 'probably more calamitous an 

 destructive. Thus, though Iridia is among the oldes 

 countries upon the historic record, it is what may b 



ailed an infant country in respect of the reciprocal 

 ntercoursc of its different districts for the welfare of 



whole. 



It is on this account that, with reference to India, 

 ue elephant has become more interesting than it was 

 t any former period. In the mere parade of an 

 .rmy, or in the march of a nabob, it may be a piece 

 )f gorgeous folly ; but if it can be employed to fetch 

 rom one district that which shall relieve the wants of 

 another, and stimulate, and by stimulating reward, the 

 ndustry of both, then the elephant takes a higher 

 ank in the scale of utility than has hitherto been 

 iven it, even by those who have doted and dreamed 

 about its rational powers, and even were those 

 )owers real, they would sink it to nothing in com- 

 )arison of the usefulness of the animal as a beast of 

 >urden, to India in a state of union and general in- 

 dustry. It is from a feeling of this kind that we have 

 )een induced to go a little more into the history of 

 this noble animal, (and viewing it as an animal it is 

 truly a noble one,) than we otherwise might have 

 done ; and this will justify us in adding a little more, 

 in order to remove a pretty general prejudice that 

 ;here is against the elephant, on account of the sup- 

 posed length of time which it hurbours revenge, and 

 the indignity it feels at being made subservient to the 

 use of man. So far as we have been able to carry 

 our observation and experience, nature bears out the 

 declaration of Holy Writ that the dominion of man 

 over the rest of the world is universal ; and that, 

 whenever he fails in it, it is in consequence of his own 

 ignorance ignorance either of the proper use of the 

 creature, or of the means of applying it to that use. 



For the means of demonstration here we must again 

 have recourse to the grand authority for rational 

 information on the subject of the elephant, Mr. Corse 

 Scott ; and we have the less hesitation in doing so, 

 that while Mr. Scott conveys nothing but the truth, 

 and no truth but that which is really and practically 

 useful, he contrives at the same time to make all his 

 statements very pleasant reading ; so that his plain 

 matter-of-fact has more charm in it than the romance 

 of almost any other man. " In June 1 787," says Mr. 

 C. Scott, " Jaltra Mungul, a male elephant taken the 

 year before, was travelling in company with some 

 other elephants towards Chittagorig, laden with a 

 tent and some baggage, for our accommodation in the 

 journey. Having come upon a tiger's track, which 

 elephants discover readily by the smell, he took fright, 

 and ran off to the woods, in spite of the efforts of the 

 driver. On entering the wood, the driver saved him- 

 self by springing from the elephant and clinging to 

 the branch of a tree under which he was passing. 

 When the elephant got rid of his driver, he soon con- 

 trived to shake off his load. As soon as he ran away, 

 a trained female was despatched after him, but could 

 not get up in time to prevent his escape ; she, how- 

 ever, brought back his driver, and the load he had 

 thrown off, and we proceeded without any hope of 

 ever seeing him again. Eighteen months after this, 

 when a herd of elephants had been taken, and had 

 remained several days in the inclosure, till they were 

 enticed into the outlet, then tied and let out in the 

 usual manner, one of the drivers, viewing a male 

 elephant very attentively, declared he resembled the 

 one which had run away. This excited the curiosity 

 of every one to go and look at him ; but when any 

 person came near, the animal struck at them with his 

 trunk, and, in every respect, appeared as wild and 



