THE HOOFED MAMMALS. 123 



estimated. This noose is then thrown over the elephant's neck and pulled 

 tight to the peg, the end of the rope being bound round a neighbouring tree ; 

 next, one of the elephant's hind-legs is noosed, and the end of this rope, for 

 the time being, bound round a neighbouring tree. The neck-rope at the 

 peg then has to be tied with twine or fibre to prevent the noose being loosened 

 by the elephant. This operation is, taking it all round, the most risky one 

 connected with the capture. But if proper care is taken there is nothing to 

 fear. The pit is then filled up by means of billets of wood being thrown in, 

 and as the animal rises nearer the surface of the ground, the two ropes fasten- 

 ing him are pulled tighter around the trees. Eventually he gets out of the 

 pit somewhat fatigued ; the ropes which secure him are then fastened to two 

 tame elephants, and the animals are marched in single file (the captured one 

 being of course in the middle) to the kraal, and all the ropes are removed. 

 He is watered three times a day, and soon made tame by kindness, given 

 sugarcane, etc. Somewhat large animals are generally in the kraal three 

 months before they can be taken out ; the little ones of 4 feet or 5| feet 

 high are, however, removed within three weeks of capture. The work of 

 capturing elephants is an exceedingly interesting one, and only needs care 

 and constant supervision to render it successful ; and certainly the more one 

 has to do with these animals the more one is bound to recognise what in- 

 telligent, useful beasts they are." 



The African elephant [E. africanus), which, as already stated, is a larger 

 animal than the Indian, has large tusks in both sexes, and is broadly dis- 

 tinguished by the structure of the molar teeth, in which the plates are fewer 

 andlower, with the ivory-spaces wider andmorelozenge-shaped, and theenamel 

 thicker and only slightly crimped. The finger-like processes on the upper 

 and lower edges of the tip of the trunk are more nearly equal in size ; the 

 ears are enormous, forming large flaps extending over the shoulders, and 

 there are only three nails on the hind-foot. As in the Indian species, the 

 rugged, naked skin bears only a few sparse hairs, but there are a number of 

 stout bristles on the edges of the end of the tail. Until decimated or exter- 

 minated in many districts by human greed, this species ranged over the 

 whole of Africa south of the Sahara, and frequently occurred in enormous 

 herds. It is less impatient of the sun than its Indian cousin, and subsists 

 largely on the soft roots of trees, which are dug up by the tusks ; one tusk 

 being generally employed in this service, and thus more rapidly worn away 

 than its fellow. 



The second sub-order of the Ungulates — the Hyracoidea — is formed by the 

 small Rodent-like animals known as hyraoes, all of which are confined to 

 Africa and Syria, and may be comprised in the single genus 

 Procavia. In the structure of the wrist-joint of the fore- Tlie Hyraoes 

 foot these animals resemble the elephants, from which they — Family 

 differ in having only three toes on the hind-foot, and but Procaviidcs. 

 four functional ones in the fore-foot, where the first is rudi- 

 mental, as well as in the characters of the dentition. As regards their front 

 teeth, the hyraces make a curious approximation to the Rodents, the upper 

 jaw having a single pair of curved incisors, which grow throughout life, and 

 are separated by a long gap, without the intervention of a canine, from the 

 cheek-teeth. In the lower jaw there are, however, two pairs of the former 

 teeth, in place of the single pair characterising the Rodents, while the upper 

 incisors differ from those of the latter in being sharp-pointed instead of 

 chisel-shaped, and also in their triangular section, two of their surfaces 



