CHAPTER VII. 

 ELEPHANTS. 



THE INDIAN ELEPHANT — IN CAPTIVITY — THEIR INTELLIGENCE AND SAGACITY 

 — THEIR SUNDAY'S PUDDINGS — CONSTITUTION CHANGES BY DOMESTICA- 

 TION — ELEPHANTS IN THEIR WILD STATE — THEIR POWER OF SCENT — 

 WONDERFUL EXAMPLES OF ENGINEERING —THEIR SIZE— CAUTION WHEN 

 STALKING THEM — MY FIRST TUSKER— THE TUSKER WITHOUT A TAIL— 

 AN AMUSING INCIDENT— ELEPHANT AND BISON — COMING ON A HERD AND 

 THE RESULT— CAPTURE OF A YOUNGSTER— THE TABLES TURNED — HEELS 

 OVER HEAD— A STRANGE SHOT— LAST TRIP AFTER ELEPHANTS — THE GREAT- 

 TUSKER OF HASSANOOR — HIS DEATH— MY LAST ELEPHANT— BROOKE STOPS 

 THE CHARGE. 



t one time during my service I had a good deal to 

 do with the Indian elephant, both wild and in 

 captivity. I was in charge of one of the large 

 teak forests in Southern India — the Annamullies — where the 

 wild elephant roamed at will. I had a number of tame 

 elephants employed to drag timber to the stacks. In those 

 days before iron had taken the place of wood, a great deal 

 of teak wood was used in ship building, and this I had to 

 supply to the Bombay Dock Yard. The teak wood is cut into 

 large beams or planks as they are called in the forest, averag- 

 ing about twenty-six feet in length, and from twelve to four- 

 teen inches square throughout — not a very heavy load for an 

 elephant to drag. A hole is cut at one end of the beam and 

 a thick drag rope is tied to it ; this the elephant takes in his 

 mouth, dragging the beam alongside ; occasionally a fallen 



