THE ELEPHANT 15 



price of trained elephants, expenses of attendants, gear 

 and equipment, and food of trained and captured beasts, 

 would come to roughly 70,000 rupees, or about 4660. 

 A little later (1903), Col. Delme-Radcliffe furnished a 

 report on the capturing of wild elephants, the gist of 

 which was as follows :--" Elephants in Africa move too 

 far and too fast to allow of the ordinary deliberate pre- 

 parations for a kheddah. The forests are very extensive, 

 and it might be difficult to collect enough natives for the 

 difficult drives required. 



" African natives could not be relied upon, to have 

 sufficient patience to stick to the kheddah work. 



" African elephants would be very difficult and dan- 

 gerous to drive about. Indian elephants being smaller, 

 less heavily armed, and slower in pace than African ones, 

 would probably be unable to control them. 



" In India, a first-class elephant receives about 860 Ibs. 

 of sugar-cane, and 60 Ibs. of flour chappaties as a single 

 day's ration. African elephants, being bigger, would 

 require more. 



" A competent staff is absolutely necessary. 



" The beasts if successfully trained, might be used for 

 carrying field guns, or for hiring out to shooting parties. 



" They cannot compare with carts or even porters for 

 transport work where roads exist ; where there are no 

 proper roads, they might not be able to carry heavy loads 

 through the swamps and rivers, and would break down 

 the makeshift bridges found in wild countries. 



" An elephant eats over 900 Ibs. of food a day and will 

 carry 12 cwt., that is to say, the loads of twenty-four 

 porters, who in the same period require altogether only 

 48 Ibs. of food. 



" Loaded elephants do not travel faster than the 

 ordinary porter marches. Porters are usually reckoned 



