The Elephant 25 



hands of the natives, cannot fail to lead to the eventual extermination of 

 the larger wild animals. 



I must confess my total inability to understand the attitude of those 

 sportsmen who decry the killing of an elephant as cruel, while they take 

 pleasure in shooting other animals. The view of such humane people as 

 condemn the pursuit of wild creatures altogether is perfectly comprehen- 

 sible and there is undoubtedly much to be said in its favour. But why it 

 should be more brutal to kill a large than a small beast I fail to see at all. 

 For myself, on the contrary, I must plead guilty to feeling far more com- 

 punction if I take the life of a beautiful and helpless little creature, such as 

 one of the tiniest species of antelopes. 



A reason often given for crying shame on any one who kills elephants 

 is the assertion that the transport question — such a serious difficulty in 

 Central Africa — might be solved by their means if caught and tamed as in 

 India. No doubt the African elephant, although inferior in intelligence 

 to his Asiatic relative, might be utilised, if captured and broken in, for 

 some kinds of work, and a noble enterprise it would be — though a costly 

 and troublesome one — to inaugurate an elephant-catching establishment in 

 Africa ; but that he could perform the ordinary transport of the country, 

 as is rashly asserted by those who have not gone into the question, I do 

 not for a moment believe. 



On this matter I have consulted a friend who has had exceptional 

 experience of domesticated elephants in India, and who himself kept a stud 

 of them for many years. He tells me that working elephants are fed on 

 grain, with " fodder " or banana stems, for which may be substituted a par- 

 ticular kind of coarse grass which grows in swamps, or branches of certain 

 trees and other herbage, according to what is obtainable in the country. 



Now it must be remembered that India and Africa are two very 

 different countries. In the latter it is most difficult to procure sufficient 

 grain to feed the men alone ; and, except in certain special localities, none 



