652 QUADRUPEDS. 



ening them forwards, from one part of the wood to another, till 

 they reach the place of their imprisonment, which is strongly palli. 

 sadoed all round, with a view of escaping from the noise, and 

 torches employed on such occasions. When once they are caught, 

 they are easily tamed, by observing the submission of other ele- 

 phants. 



The Ceylonese elephants are those most highly esteemed in In- 

 dia ; and the mode of snaring them is peculiarly entertaining and 

 curious. InJMr. Cordiner's Description of Ceylon, there is a good 

 account of this extroradinary decoy, and we shall present our rea. 

 ders with it, in as condensed a form as possible. The hunt alluded 

 to, took place near the elephant snare at Kotaway,only a few miles 

 distant from Tengalle. The governor and his suite attended on 

 this occasion, and the whole of the party employed was not fewer 

 than three thousand persons. The whole of this multitude sur- 

 rounded the forests in which elephants are discovered to abound, 

 with a chain of fires placed on moveable stands, so as to be brought 

 closer, according as the elephants are driven nearer to the centre. 

 The distance between the fires may at first have been an hundred 

 paces, which is gradually reduced to about ten paces. The more 

 the elephants are confined, the more vigilant the hunters must be- 

 come, and prepared to repel their efforts to escape, by advancing 

 the fires, and by loud shouting. At the end of two months, they 

 thus become inclosed in a circle, of which the wide entrance of the 

 snare forms a part, and are at last brought so near to \t } that by the 

 exertions of the surrounding multitude, they can be made close pri- 

 soners in a few hours. It is now that all those who are desirous of 

 witnessing the capture resort to the scene of action. 



An idea of the enclosure may be formed by drawing, on a piece 

 of paper, the outline of a wide funnel. A little way within the 

 wide end, a palisade runs across, in breadth six hundred feet, con- 

 taining four open gates, which the elephants enter. A view of two 

 of these is commanded from a bungaloe, erected for spectators on 

 pillars thirty feet from the ground. TThe enclosure is formed of 

 the strongest trees on the island, from eight to ten inches in diame- 

 ter, bending inwards, sunk four feet into the ground, and from 

 sixteen to twenty feet high above it. They are placed at the dis- 

 tance of sixteen inches from each other, and crossed by four rows 

 of powerful beams, bound fast to them by pliant canes. To this 

 palisade are added supporters more inclined, several feet asunder 3 



