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FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



141 



ARRANGING TEAK IN A LUMBER YARD. 



"At a word from his driver he picks up a timber." 



at a word from his driver, he picks up 

 a timber, carries it to the designated 

 point, and then not only deposits it 

 where it belongs, but does so with pre- 

 cision and comparative ease, accom- 

 plishing a result almost impossible by 

 hand labor and with less expenditure 

 of time than would be required by a 

 steam crane. In most cases an ele- 

 phant driver, or mahout, is required for 

 each elephant, but human labor is so 

 cheap as not to be a factor in the ex- 

 pense. The elephant furnishes the la- 

 bor which is paid for, and the driver is 

 looked upon as a necessary, though not 

 altogether desirable concomitant, as the 

 native helper is not as much to be re- 

 lied upon as his big charge. Opium 

 and the strong brews of native roots 

 work on human frailty, but the elephant 

 has no desire for these. In many big 

 lumbering operations, the elephants are 

 seemingly ' ' told ' ' what they are to do 

 in the morning and in some degree left 

 to carry on the work during the day 

 according to their own devices. Very 



remarkable are the stories told of their 

 sagacity. One of these stories, vouched 

 for as true, concerns lumbering, and 

 tells of an elephant that was about to 

 pick up a log just as the great gong, 

 which signalled the close of the day's 

 work, was sounded. To the surprise of 

 the mahout, the log, only a little larger 

 than others which had been carried, 

 proved too heavy for the elephant to 

 lift from the ground. Another elephant 

 was requisitioned, but the two together 

 failed to make any headway with the 

 heavy timber, and the attempt was 

 given up. In the morning the first 

 elephant went immediately to the tim- 

 ber, lifted it with apparent ease, and 

 carried it to the required resting place. 

 The lumber handled by these beasts 

 is, however, exceedingly heavy. Most 

 of it is teak, familiar to Americans in 

 the form of black, quaintly carved fur- 

 niture, of a weight and hardness which 

 suggests ebony. Much of it, when 

 handled by the elephants, is thoroughly 

 water soaked. In Rudyard Kipling's 



