CHAPTER IV 

 THK ELEPHANT (continued) 



THE experience of modern practice has hardly decided the vexed 

 question "whether the African species is more difficult to train 

 than the gentle elephant of Asia." In a wild state there can be 

 no doubt that the African is altogether a different animal both in 

 apjK'arance and in habits ; it is vastly superior in size, and although 

 of enormous bulk, it is more active and possesses greater speed 

 than the Asiatic variety. Not only is the marked difference in 

 shape a distinguishing peculiarity, the hollow back, the receding 

 front, the great size of the ears, but the skin is rougher, and 

 more decided in the bark-like api>earance of its texture. 



The jH'riotl of gestation is considered to be the same as the 

 Asiatic elephant, about twenty-two months, but this must be 

 merely conjecture, as there lias hitherto been no actual proof. My 

 own experience induces me to believe that the African elephant is 

 more savage, and although it may be tamed and rendered docile, 

 it is not so dependable as the Asiatic. Only la-st year I saw an 

 African female in a menagerie who had killed her keeper, and was 

 known to le most treacherous. Her attendant informed me that 

 she was particularly fond of change, and would welcome a new 

 keeper with evident signs of satisfaction, but after three or four 

 days she would tire of his society and would assuredly attempt to 

 injure him, cither by backing and squeezing him against the wall, 

 or by kicking should he be within reach of her hind h-gs. 



Few persons are aware of the extreme quickness with which 

 an elephant can kick, and the great height that can be reached by 

 this mischievous use of the hind foot. I have frequently seen an 

 elephant kiek as sharp as a small pony, and the effect of a blow 

 from so ponderous a mass propelled with extreme velocity may l>e 

 imagined. This is a peculiar action, as the elephant is devoid of 

 hocks and it uses the knees of the hind legs in a similar manner 



