6ic 



REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



HE SCREAMED. FROTHED 



AND LUNGED AGAINST HIS FETTERS." 



[Courtesy of the '"Century yiagiizine." 



NOOSING WILD ELEPHANTS. 



Two interesting accounts of capturing 

 jind breaking in wild elephants appear 

 in the Century Magazine. The first by 

 D. P. B. Conkling describes how 213 

 wild elephants were forced into a great 

 kraal 400 ft. square, made of teak-wood 

 logs. These beasts had been collected 

 in a general round-up about the old 

 capital of Siam. 



Thirty trained mounts, each with his two 

 mahouts, together with hundreds of natives 

 on foot, had been at work for two or more 

 weeks getting this herd together, and safely 

 into the kraal. The driving of this huge 

 mass of beasts day after day until finally the 

 last rush is made and the herd is well inside 

 the fan requires more neiTe, patience and 

 •skill than perhaps any other form of capture 

 in the world. It is not unusual that many 

 men are killed in this work, for if once the 

 herd gets scent of danger, nothing can with- 

 stand their fearful charge. 



The first signs of the approaching herd 

 were a great cloud of dust and a dull roar 

 like a heavy freight-train, making the ground 

 fairly tremble ; and then out of the rnist 

 came the huge beasts, pushing and fighting 

 as they were packed closer in the converging 

 fan, and making the air ring with their shrill 

 trumpetings. 



The large swinging beams at the entrance 

 were pulled aside, and in they came with a 

 rush, by twos and threes, stopping suddenly, 

 and looking about in a dazed wav at the .veil- 

 ing crowd of natives perched out of danger 

 high on the walls beyond the stockade. "When 

 the whole herd was in and the paddock closed, 

 they were left to themselves for a time before 

 the real work of the day, from a spectator's 

 point of view at least, began. 



Amongst the whole 213 only 8 were 

 found which were deemed worth train- 

 ing. These eight w^ere " cut out " by 

 powerful tame tuskers and the rest of 

 the herd was driven away into the jungle 

 to seek again its old haunts. 



THE CEYLONESE METHOD. 



Mr. Charles Moser's description of a 

 round-up in Ceylon is far more excit- 

 ing. 



The plan and strategy of an elephant kraal 

 is %^ery simple. A wooded country, over 

 which elephants rove and through which a 

 suitable stream flows, is selected. A stockade 

 from twelve to sixteen feet in height, and 

 inclosing part of the stream, and from four 

 to six acres of jungle, is constructed of stout 

 logs lashed together with rattan withes. At 



