220 TWO YEARS IX THE JUXGLE. 



vertebra than the former. The Ceylon elephant is, without doubt^ 

 of smaller average size than its congener of the peninsula, and I be- 

 lieve it could be proven that the same difference in size exists be- 

 tween these two that is found between the Indian and the African. 



Strange to say, the elephant which inhabits Sumatra exactly re- 

 sembles that of Ceylon in point of stnicture, and many eminent 

 naturalists regard this coincidence as strong evidence in support of 

 the theory that the two islands were once connected by a vast con- 

 tinent. It is, however, much easier to account for the presence of 

 the Ceylon elephant in Sumatra by supposing it to have been orig- 

 inally transported from the former island in a domestic state and 

 afterward allowed to run wild. 



The Indian elephant in a wild state is now an inhabitant of 

 Northeastern Borneo, but it is highly probable that in a few centu- 

 ries all the records will be lost or obscured which now inform us 

 that more than a hundred years ago the East India Company sent 

 some elephants as a present to the Sultan of Sulu, and he, fearing 

 the huge beasts would devour the whole annual crop of his little 

 island, had them landed on the coast of Borneo, at CajDe Unsang, 

 where they were to be cared for by his subjects. It is easy to con- 

 jectui-e how long an indolent Malay would exert himself to feed an 

 utterly useless animal with the appetite of an elephant, and how 

 soon the animals would be turned loose to feed themselves in the 

 jungle ; nor is it difficult to imagine the natui-alists of the twenty- 

 third century regarding the presence of the Indian elephant in 

 Borneo as proof positive that that great island was once connected 

 with the mainland of Asia and Ceylon by a continent. 



Up to this time, the African elephant has never been systematic- 

 ally captured ahve and trained to service by the natives, but in 

 Ce3'lon, India, Burmah, and Siam, elejDhant-catching has been car- 

 ried on regularly from time immemorial. About the time of the 

 English occupation, the island of Ceylon contained, almost beyond 

 question, as many wUd elephants as the whole of the peninsula of 

 Hindustan, whole districts being completely overrun with them. 

 Great numbers were caught m corrals, sometimes as many as one 

 hundred and sixty head at a single drive, and even as late as the 

 last decade but one, the number exported annually amounted to 

 an average of one hundred and ninety-three. Since the Enghsh 

 occupation, thousands have been slaughtered by sportsmen, and 

 thousands more captured and exported, until finally, in 1870, the 

 Colonial authorities decided that the proper Hmit of destruction 



