152 ANIMALS AT WORK AND PL A Y 



on the contrary, that they are stronger, and at least 

 as tractable, and as useful as beasts of burden or to 

 be ridden, as Indian elephants ; and he claims to 

 have convinced the Berlin Geographical Society that 

 this view was correct, as early as 1878, when he 

 had a number of African elephants in that city. 



It will be quite sufficient for practical purposes, 

 if a part only of these anticipations are realised. If 

 the African elephant can be trained and made an 

 obedient slave, it will be a factor of enormous im- 

 portance in a district where the tsetse-fly stops all 

 animal carriage, and where for generations human 

 that is, slave transport has been the sole means 

 of conveying goods from the interior to the coast. 

 The African elephant may well answer this purpose 

 without becoming such a marvel of intelligence and 

 docility as his Indian relative. Moreover, he is not 

 only as strong, but far stronger in mere physique 

 than the Indian, the males being, on an average, 

 two feet, and the females one foot, higher than the 

 Asiatic species. Whether they have quite the same 

 massive dray-horse build may be doubted ; but for 

 most purposes they would probably be even more 

 serviceable as beasts of burden, and the question of 

 general constitution would hardly arise in the case of 

 animals used in their own country, as these would 

 v be in the German Colonies. The experience of English 



