THE ELEPHANT 13 



A considerable number of young animals are now used 

 for station work at this place, carrying bricks, dragging 

 timber, and so on. 



Captain Rinquet, the late commandant at Lado, was 

 kind enough to show the writer, when there in 1909, some 

 interesting photographs taken of these animals. The 

 experiment is extremely interesting, and one which it 

 may be hoped will not only invite imitation elsewhere, 

 but will itself be persevered with through the number of 

 years necessary for a reliable judgment to be formed 

 as to its ultimate utility. The animals are at present 

 young, and therefore perhaps amenable to control in a 

 degree which may not be possible when they have attained 

 maturer age ; but if all difficulties are finally overcome, 

 transport in the remoter parts of Africa may receive 

 substantial aid, and another argument for the preservation 

 of this grand species from extinction will exist. 



Mr. Sclater as a result of his very long experience of 

 both African and Indian elephants in the London Zoo- 

 logical Gardens, is emphatically of the opinion that both 

 are equally docile. He writes : 



" Since 1865 there have been African as well as Indian 

 elephants in the Society's menagerie. Both have been 

 treated alike and both, it may be said, are equally in- 

 telligent and tractable. All elephants on attaining adult 

 age are liable to fits of temper, and to become dangerous, 

 but this occurs in Indian as well as in African species." 



The argument has often been advanced in favour of 

 the domestication of African elephants, that in classic 

 times, the Carthaginians, and other Mediterranean 

 powers, used them in warfare. Whether this was the 

 case, or whether Asiatic elephants, imported or home 

 bred, are referred to by the ancient writers seems un- 

 certain. The theory has sometimes been held that an 



