464 THE ELEPHANT 



efforts had failed to put the noose over the leg of an elephant 

 who was already secured by one foot, but who wisely put 

 the other to the ground as often as it was attempted to pass the 

 noose under it, he saw the decoy watch her opportunity, and 

 when his foot was again raised, suddenly push in her own leg 

 beneath it, and hold it up till the noose was attached and drawn 

 tight. Apart from the services which from their prodigious 

 strength the tame elephants are alone capable of rendering, in 

 dragging out and securing the captives, it is perfectly obvious 

 that, without their sagacious cooperation, the utmost prowess 

 and dexterity of the hunters would not avail them to enter the 

 enclosure unsupported, or to ensnare and lead out a single 

 captive. 



It may easily be imagined that the passage from a life of 

 unfettered liberty in the cool and sequestered forest to one of 

 obedience and labour, must necessarily put the health of the 

 captured animals to a severe trial. Many perish in consequence 

 of the fearful wounds on the legs occasioned by their struggling 

 against the ropes, and it has frequently happened that a valuable 

 animal has lain down and died the first time it was tried in 

 harness from what the natives designate a " broken hearV 

 Official records prove that more than half of the elephants em- 

 ployed in the public departments of the Ceylon government 

 die in one year's servitude, and even when fully trained and 

 inured to captivity, the working elephant is always a delicate 

 animal, subject to a great variety of diseases, and consequently 

 often incapacitated from labour. Thus, in spite of his colossal 

 strength, which cannot even be employed to its full extent, as it is 

 difficult to pack him without chafing the skin, and wagons of 

 corresponding dimension to his muscular powers would utterly 

 ruin the best constructed roads, it is very doubtful whether his 

 services are in proportion to his cost, and Sir J. E. Tennent is of 

 opinion that two vigorous dray horses would, at less expense, do 

 more effectual work than any elephant- Most likely from a 

 comparative calculation of this kind, the strength of the elephant- 

 establishments in Ceylon has been gradually diminished of late 

 years, so that the government stud, which formerly consisted of 

 upwards of sixty elephants, is at present reduced to less than 

 one quarter of that number. 



In no kind of labour does the elephant display a greater 



