KLOOF AND KARROO. 



performed ; the elephant was followed, chalked, 

 and laid low, but, rising again before Thackwray 

 had reloaded, it turned upon him, thrust one tusk 

 through his thigh, then grasping him with its trunk, 

 smashed the unfortunate man almost to atoms, and 

 then falling upon him repeatedly with its knees, 

 crushed his body to a pulp. The elephant was 

 afterwards found dead with the chalk marks upon 

 it, still uneffaced. 



It is a remarkable thing that in modern times 

 no attempt has been made to domesticate and 

 utilise the African elephant, as with its Indian 

 congener. Within this century, the young of the 

 elephant might have been captured even in the 

 Old Colony itself, but no Governor of the Cape 

 has apparently ever considered the matter worth 

 thinking of, or if he has, his thoughts have been 

 dexterously concealed. In India the elephant, 

 although inferior in stature and strength to the 

 elephant of Africa, has been utilized to a very 

 large extent, and its mighty thews and sinews and 

 wonderful intellect have aided in many a scheme 

 of useful work, and in many a distant campaign. 



In South Africa its services could have been at 

 least as advantageously employed ; and yet decade 

 after decade these magnificent creatures have been 

 ruthlessly shot down and exterminated, until now 

 it is almost too late to think of subjugating and 

 employing them. But even now there is time, and 

 within thirty miles of Port Elizabeth, a town of 

 seventeen thousand inhabitants — the most thriving 

 business emporium of eastern South Africa — a 

 beginning might be made. I say might, for although 

 the raw material is there, I doubt greatly if a 



