ELEPHANTS. 253 



noosed, induce the Government to resort to it as seldom as 

 possible. 



"In former days the number and boldness of elephants rendered 

 their destruction a matter of necessity; now they are fully alive 

 to their danger, and instinctively keep away as a general rule from 

 villages where they know they will be encountered with fire-arms. 

 Complaints, no doubt, sometimes come in that an outlying crop has 

 been ravaged, in which case the punishment of the invaders is 

 permitted. Rewards are also given for the destruction of rogue- 

 elephants, who occupy for a time some particular road, put to 

 flight the post-runners and tear open the bags, which are 

 abandoned to them to divert their attention. The letters scattered 

 about are shown by the runners in attestation of their story. It 

 has, however, been remarked that though ordinary letters in 

 such cases are recovered, the registered letters have some 

 particular attraction to the animal and are carried off by him into 

 the jungle. 



" In these circumstances it has been found necessary to put a 

 stop to the issue of licences to shoot and capture, except for 

 Government purposes, for some time to come ; and it is desirable 

 that sporting adventurers should be apprised that their only 

 chance of being allowed a shot at an elephant in Ceylon is in the 

 case of a notorious rogue, or a herd indulging in too frequent 

 visits to irrigation works, and consequent destruction of the 



dams." 



In the Cape Colony the capture or destruction of elephants has 

 also lately been forbidden by law, and Dr. Bmil Holub ^ informs 

 us that in consequence several wild herds, numbering twenty or 

 thirty head, still exist there, whilst in the Transvaal, the Orange 

 and the Bechuana country the race has been totally annihilated. In 

 the whole of Africa no such law can be universally apphed, hence 

 it is now the one "happy hunting-ground" of elephant-shooters, 

 both Hottentot and white man, and the race of the African 



animal is doomed. 



A cursory view of the published trade-returns will soon give any 

 one curious upon this point some idea of the wholesale slaughter 

 I " Seven Years in South Africa." 



