WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY 



to (iiffer to so great an extent that the treatment that 

 succeeds so well with the Asiatic species would fail with 

 the African. My experience with the last-named species 

 convinces me that they require a much greater amount of 

 skill and attention than the more docile Indian species. 

 The male African elephant we have in the Gardens, I 

 believe, is the largest living example in Europe. He is 

 amazingly intelligent, good-tempered, and tractable ; at 

 the same time he has given me, and every one who has 

 had anything to do with him, constant and increasing 

 trouble and anxiety. First his enormous strength and 

 restless disposition, together with his determined desire to 

 be at large, has kept us day after day constantly employed 

 altering, repairing, and making his house strong enough 

 to keep him in it. Now, considering the ease with which 

 we can obtain assistance at any moment of masons, 

 carpenters, smiths, etc., with all the required materials at 

 hand, and still find it difficult and troublesome, it occurred 

 to me that the natives of Africa would be a little over- 

 matched. At the same time, we must consider that the 

 state of the interior of Afirica is now likely to undergo a 

 great change, and if the determined, bold, and reckless 

 slave-hunters and slave-traders will turn their attention 

 to the capture and training of the elephant in Africa, there 

 can be no doubt they would succeed and render the 

 country and themselves a great and everlasting good. In 

 conclusion, I have no doubt whatever if the proper ap- 

 pliances and means can be found to subdue the African 

 elephant, he will be as tractable and useful as the Indian 

 species. 



These animals may not be as docile as Asiatic, but we 

 must not forget that they were regularly tamed and used 

 by the ancients. That this was the kind used by the 

 Carthaginians is evident from the form represented on 



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