AN EXPLOEATION IN THE FAR EAST. 431 



elephants with trained men are employed for noosing and 

 tying them." 



Doubts have been expressed whether these elephants are 

 really indigenous to this part of India, or are the descendants 

 of some tame elephants which broke away from a train 

 belonging to one of the K&j^s of Ndgpiir, when passing 

 through the country about a century ago. Lieutenant John- 

 stone, who superintended the Khedda" operations here, says 

 that the Central Indian elephant more nearly resembles the 

 species of Ceylon and the Eastern Archipelago (Elephas 

 Sumatranus) than the species of the Indian Peninsula (E. 

 Indicus), particularly in having an extra pair of small ribs 

 peculiar to the former, and in having fewer tusked males 

 than is usual with the Indian elephant.* But it would seem 

 that the osteology of the elephants of Asia (if there really 

 be more than one species) has not yet been properly deter- 

 mined ; and there are other arguments which lead to the 

 belief that these elephants are really indigenous. It is fully 

 ascertained that wild elephants at one time extended much 

 further to- the west in these central regions than they 

 now do ; and the nomenclature of localities in the inter- 

 mediate districts, in which the Hindu name for the elephant 

 still forms a common element, supports the belief that they 

 were gradually driven east by the advance of civilisation. 

 Again, these herds are not isolated, but are only the most 

 westerly extension of a vast elephant region in the hills of 

 Sirgujd, Chota* Ndgpiir, and Cuttdck. Lastly, it is wholly 

 impossible, considering the rate of birth and growth of the 

 animal, that a few individuals could have so increased by 

 mere breeding in so short a period. Possibly the intro- 

 duction of one or two Cingalese elephants from captivity 



* Vide Proceedings of the Bengal Asiatic Society for May, 1868. 



