156 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 
feet. A waggon was brought the same night, and the mangled body carried to the hunter’s 
camp on the banks of the Ramokwebani, where it was buried. 
The strength of the elephant is proverbial; and in India and Burma, where this animal has 
for ages past been trained in the service of man, this power is habitually made use of in moving 
and stacking large baulks of timber, or in dragging heavy guns through muddy ground or up 
steep ascents. In Africa the traveler is often astonished at the size of trees which have been 
uprooted and overturned by elephants. These trees, however, have no tap-root, and have not 
therefore a very firm hold in the ground, especially during the rainy season, when the ground is 
soft. At this time of year large trees are butted down by elephants, which push against their 
stems with the thick part of their trunks, and get them on the swing, until the roots become 
loosened and the trees are at last overturned. Small trees of 2 or 3 inches in diameter, as well 
as branches, they break off with their trunks. In 1878 a tuskless bull elephant—I met the same 
animal again in 1885, and he is the only African bull elephant without tusks I have ever seen— 
killed a native hunter in Mashonaland. This man, a big powerful Zulu and a great friend of my- 
own, was torn into three pieces. I imagine that, after having caught him, the elephant held the 
unfortunate man down with his foot or knee, and then, twisting his trunk round his body, tore 
him asunder—surely a terrible exhibition of strength. 
The elephant is avery slow-going and long-lived animal, not arriving at maturity until 
upwards of thirty years of age; and since cases are’on record of elephants having lived for 
upwards of 130 years in captivity in India, it is probable that in a wild state these animals, both in 
Asia and Africa, often attain toan age of 150 years. The female elephant produces, as a rule, but 
one calf at birth, the period of gestation lasting from eighteen to nearly twenty-two months. 
The mammez of the cow elephant are placed between the fore legs, and the new-born calf sucks 
with its mouth, holding its trunk turned back over its head. I have seen elephant calves so 
engaged. 
Although there is no reason to doubt that the African elephant is as intelligent as the Asiatic 
species, its domestication has never been attempted by the Negro or Bantu races of Africa. It is 
believed, however, that the African elephant 
was in ancient times domesticated by the 
Carthaginians, and used by them in their wars 
with the Romans. The opinion, too, is gen- 
erally held that the elephants with whichHan- 
nibal crossed the Alps were of the African spe- 
cies, as well as those which, after the conquest 
of Carthage, were used in the Roman amphi- 
theatres and military pageants. On the other 
hand, it is well to remember that the late Mr. 
W. Cotton Oswell, who had had great ex- 
perience both with African and Asiatic ele- 
phants, wrote as follows on this subject: “I 
believe some people suppose the Carthaginians 
tamed and used the African elephant they could 
hardly have had mahouts Indian fashion, for 
there is no marked depression in the nape of 
the neck for a seat, and the hemming of the 
ears when erected would have half smothered 
i van LES 
them. My knowledge does not allow me to Photo by J. W, McLellan] [Highbury 
raise any argument on this point; but might AFRICAN ELEPHANT 
not the same market have been open to the The difference tn profile between this and the Indian species is noticeable. 
dwellers at Car thage as was afterwards to The forebead is receding and the ears much larger in the African species 
