154 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 
Photo by M. E. F. Baird, Esq. 
FEMALE INDIAN ELEPHANT DRAGGING TEAK 
The teak logs are floated down the Burmese rivers and dragged out by elephants 
seen. It weighs 228 lbs., measures 10 feet 2% inches on the outside curve, and 24¥ in girth at 
the thickest part. The tusks of cow elephants are also considerably larger and heavier on the 
average in East Central and North Central Africa than in the southern portions of the continent. 
At the present time the Asiatic elephant is found in a wild state in most of the forest- 
covered tracts of India, Ceylon, Assam, Burma, Siam, Cochin-China, Sumatra, and Borneo; 
whilst the African species, although it has been hunted out of large tracts of country in South 
and Southwestern Africa, still inhabits the greater part of the continent south of the Sahara, and 
in many districts of Central Africa appears to be extraordinarily abundant. In the Cape Colony 
two herds still exist under the protection of the Government. 
As might be expected from the greater length of its legs, and consequent longer stride, the 
African elephant is admitted by those who have had experience of both species to be a more 
active animal than its Asiatic cousin. Speaking of the walking and running powers of the Indian 
elephant, that great authority Mr. Sanderson says that “the only pace of the elephant is the 
walk, capable of being increased to a fast shuffle of about fifteen miles an hour for very short dis- 
tances. It can neither trot, canter, nor gallop. It does not move with the legs on the same 
side, but nearly so. A very good runner might keep out of an elephant’s way on a smooth. 
piece of turf, but on the ground in which they are generally met with any attempt to escape by 
flight, unless supplemented by concealment, would be unavailing.” This description exactly 
coincides with my own experience of the African elephant, except that I think that animals of 
the latter species, especially cows and young bulls, are capable of getting up a pace of at least 
twenty miles an hour, and keeping it up for from 100 to 200 yards, when charging. 
