THE FALL OF THE ELEPHANT. 213 



commencement will now ever be made of this 

 business ; and yet, by the importation of a few 

 Indian elephants and their trainers, and the 

 establishment of proper capturing compounds, the 

 whole thing might be successfully accomplished 

 almost within sound of Port Elizabeth — certainly 

 of Uitenhage. 



This modern neglect of the African elephant is 

 not a little singular, especially having in view the 

 shining examples of our Indian dependency. The 

 figures on many a Roman coin and medal bear 

 ample testimony to the frequent user of Elephas 

 Africanus in ancient times. This fact is quite 

 indisputable, for not only do the huge flap ears — 

 differing so entirely from the Indian species — 

 extending to the point of the shoulder, instantly 

 proclaim the African elephant's identity upon Roman 

 coinage, but history gives at least two well-known 

 instances of the employment of trained African 

 elephants, even within Europe itself. Pyrrhus, 

 king of Epirus, so far back as 280, B.C., aided 

 by Egyptian Ptolemy, with men and elephants, 

 successfully made war upon Rome, and chiefly by 

 the help of his African elephants, obtained victory 

 at Heraclea, upon the Gulf of Tarentum, and two 

 years later, 279, B.C., at Asculum. In the second 

 Punic War, Hannibal, starting from New Carthage, 

 B.C., 218, made his never-to-be-forgotten passage 

 of the Pyrennees and Alps, with, thirty-seven 

 African elephants ; and these huge creatures, 

 subsequently reinforced by more of their kind, in 

 213, B.C., undoubtedly contributed in no slight 

 degree towards his memorable victories of the 

 Trevia, Lake Thrasymene, Cannae, Herdonea, 



