166 THE JUNGLES. 



next largest to himself if he fell in his way, but never going after him in a 

 malicious manner. Had he done so he could certainly have killed him in 

 such a confined enclosure. One of the tuskers was liurled against the barri- 

 cade by a larger animal ; the guards applied their lighted bamboos to the un- 

 fortunate beast while down in the trench as a hint to him not to do it again ! 



We secured these elephants without mishap, though some of our 

 females showed great reluctance to working amongst so many tuskers. Tlie 

 men took care to cause no uproar in the enclosure, as, had the large tusker 

 moved about rapidly, the others might have overwhelmed men and elephants 

 in their endeavours to keep out of his way. When he was tied up lie made 

 tremendous though silent struggles to free himself, using every muscle of 

 his siant frame in the endeavour to break his bonds. He continued to do 

 so for several hours without intermission, when he desisted, and never after- 

 wards renewed the struggle. This is invariably the case with the best- 

 couraged elephants. If their first attempts fail they submit with dignity, 

 wliilst small animals hardly worth the catching will frequently fight for 

 days, and injure themselves by useless struggling against the inevitable. 



Having now captured eighty-five elephants, the marching of which out 

 of the jungles would be a sufficiently arduous task, I ordered every one 

 to collect on the Myanee where the stream near which we had caught the 

 last elephants joined it, and here we formed a large camp (Xo. 12). The 

 wild elephants were arranged in rows amongst the trees, two men being 

 appointed to each to supply them with fodder and water, and to doctor their 

 wounds. The spare men were employed in cutting fodder, wliich the tame 

 elephants, as also the boats and rafts, brought to the encampment. The 

 weather was delightfully bracing, with intense cold at nights. 



I now had leisure to shoot, fish, and roam about the jungles. The forest 

 along the river was particularly fine, and free from grass and troublesome 

 undergrowth. It was evident from the marks on the trees that the river 

 overflowed its banks to a considerable depth during the monsoon rains. The 

 reason of this is that the dry-weather channel is very tortuous, so the 

 floods take a straight course, cutting off the angles round which the stream 

 now meandered. The spits of land subject to these inundations were over- 

 laid with rich alluvial soil, in which one of the plants (tdra), on which we 

 fed tlic elc])liants, grew in great abundance. It is, I believe, a species of 

 wild arrowroot. It has a succulent, triangular stalk, as thick as tln-ee fingers; 

 the leaves are broad, and upwards of a foot in length. IMany plants were 

 ten feet in lieight. This fodder was easy to cut and convenient to stow 

 on tlie elephants' backs, and was greatly relished by them. I ha\'e not seen 

 it out of Bengal. 



