Catching Elephants in Pitfalls. 123 



animals were not entombed, for in the panic they 

 took any path, and all others but those leading to 

 the pits were blocked. Thus it seemed that every 

 snare would hold its victim, but fortunately for the 

 herd they only lost three of their leaders, two females 

 and one male, but this repaid the hunters well, for 

 they represented at least Ks.4,500 to be divided 

 between some fifteen men not bad for one night's 

 work. 



In Upper Burma, close to the city of Umrapoorah 

 the former capital, they had two inclosures close to 

 the walls in which they used to catch wild elephants. 

 One was thus caught while I was there in 1856. 

 AV ell-trained cow elephants were let loose. These 

 wandered into the jungles, allowed the males to make 

 love to them, and then Delilah-like betrayed them 

 by enticing their admirers within the enclosure. I 

 was told as many as twenty valuable males had thus 

 been caught in one year. It cost nothing, for the 

 females were let loose in the slack season, when not 

 required for timber operations, and in almost every 

 case they became pregnant, and brought forth in due 

 time. But our Government has never succeeded in 

 breeding elephants, nor was their mode of copulation 

 known to us till lately. But in Siam, they do much as 

 the Burmese, and when a female is inclined for the 

 male, she is let loose, is duly covered, and generally 

 returns back to her Pheel-Khana. Occasionally one is 

 lost, but in Siam elephants are plentiful, and one more 

 or less does not matter. But I think it is cheaper and 

 better in the long run to catch the adult animals than 

 to breed them, though the Keddah Department is a 

 very considerable cost to the Government of India, 



