ORDER PACHYDERM AT A. 351 



the Cape they make sledges of them to draw the heavy tools 

 to and from the field, and even convey the sick. The pecu- 



pect. To a certain extent the feint succeeded. She sent some 

 buns to him by a strange lad, in one of which a quantity of calomel 

 had been introduced. He ate each bun from the boy's hand till 

 that with the calomel was presented ; instead of conveying it to 

 his mouth, he instantly dropped the bun, and crushed it with his 

 foot. In this way he was accustomed to treat everything of food 

 that he disliked. 



" It was always considered that the elephant's den was of sufficient 

 strength and magnitude to accommodate, and be proof against any 

 attack he was able to direct against it, even in his most violent 

 displeasure. In the course of the four preceding years the front 

 had sustained many hundred of his powerful lunges, without any 

 part having been substantially injured, or the smallest portion dis- 

 placed, or rendered rickety in the slightest degree ; but on this 

 morning (Wednesday,) about ten o'clock, he made a tremendous 

 rush at the front, wholly unexcited by provocation, and broke the 

 tenon, or square end at the top of the hinge story-post, to which 

 the gates are hung, from its socket or mortise in the massive cross- 

 beam above; and, consequently, the strong iron-clamped gates, 

 which had hitherto resisted his many furious attacks upon them, 

 lost their security. Mr. Cross was then absent from the menagerie, 

 and, in the urgency of the moment, his friend Mr. Tyler, a gentle- 

 man of great coolness and faculty of arrangement, gave orders for 

 a strong massy piece of timber to be placed in front of his den, as 

 a temporary fixture against the broken story-post; and offered 

 everything he could think of to pamper, and, if possible, to allay 

 the animal's fury. On Mr. Cross's arrival he rightly judged, that 

 another such lunge would prostrate the gates ; and, as it was 

 known that Mr. Harrison, the carpenter of the den, who formerly 

 possessed great influence over him, had now lost all power of con- 

 trolling him, it was morally certain, thakif any other persons at- 

 tempted to repair the mischief in an effectual way, their lives would 

 be forfeited. Mr. Cross, under these circumstances bf imminent 

 danger, instantly determined to destroy the elephant with all pos- 

 sible despatch, as the only measure he could possibly adopt for 

 his own safety and the safety of the public. Having formed his 

 resolution, he went without a moment's delay to Mr. Gifford, che- 

 mist in the Strand, and requested to be supplied with a potent 

 poison, destitute if possible of taste or smell. Mr. Gifford, sen- 



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