THE RE-DOMESTICATION OF THE 

 AFRICAN ELEPHANT 



GERMANY, which feels the want of a reliable beast 

 of burden in her East African territority even more 

 than England, seems to have resolved on the re- 

 domestication of the African elephant. Some time 

 ago a German officer commenced a series of visits 

 to the Indian ' keddahs,' and after mastering so far 

 as possible the Indian methods and system of catching 

 and training wild elephants, has hired a staff of ex- 

 perienced Indian catchers and trainers, and is to 

 establish a Government ' Elephant Stud ' in German 

 East Africa. Mr Carl Hagenbeck, proprietor of the 

 Thierpark at Hamburg, has recently contributed an 

 interesting article on this subject to the Hamburger 

 Nachrichten. Mr Hagenbeck's name is a household 

 word in Germany and the United States, and his 

 name became familiar in England last summer, when 

 he exhibited his Somalis and their animals at the 

 Crystal Palace ; but it is perhaps worth noting that 



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