far as load is concerned, tlic equal of au elephant, with the incal- 

 culable advantages of requiring less food, fewer attendants, and 

 less general attention — but with the disadvantage of being limited 

 to roads fit for wheeled traffic. The elephant is available for 

 draught only when severe work is to he done for a short time, con- 

 sequently it is an advantage to have equipped elephants with any 

 force having guns or a heavily ladeu baggage or siege train. In 

 a sandy country when the bullocks refuse to move he will draw 

 a heavy weight faster even that horses, in crossing muddy o;* 

 sandy beds of rivers, and in narrow ravines, where there is not 

 room for a team, his great strength renders hiiii useful. It is a 

 mistake to suppose that the elephant cannot work in a hilly coun- 

 try. As a matter of fact he has done good service both among 

 mountains and on the flat, in thick jungle country and on open 

 maidan. This is only what we might expect from a knowledge 

 of his geographical range. Tennent records the discovery of a 

 spore of elephant on a high mountain peak in Ceylon. However, 

 it must be remembered that some elephants are better adapted 

 than others for work in a country of special physical conformation, 

 plain elephants for plains, hill elephants for hills. Continuous 

 work especially in draught over hard roads or rocty ground is 

 apt to cause sore feet — which, however, is especially liable to 

 result when the animals are used with undried feet on hard dry 

 ground. Stony ground proves trying to laden, and especially 

 overloaded, elephants, who stumble and may fall or bruise their 

 feet severely. An unladen elephant will pass without accident 

 over very rough ground. 



The elephant cannot he objected to on the ground of want of ver- 

 satility — he can do work in more ways than most other animals 

 and with au amount of intelligence, or at any rate methodical perr 

 formance, which is most admirable and valuable. But the trans- 

 port work for which he is most useful, the carriage of large 

 tents, and other nondivisible bulky and weighty articles, is be- 

 coming of less importance now than previously, and it cannot he 

 doubted that as a general transport animal the elephant has " seen 

 his day.'' He does not stand climatic change well, being seriously 

 affected both by cold and heat if they be extreme. Although aa 

 inhabitant of the tropics and naturally nocturnal in his habits, 

 yet when domesticated he requires careful protection from thfl 

 sun during day and from cold in the night. Although he actually 



