WORK AND SPORT IN THE N.W.P. 71 
animals are left to those last in the field, and so 
frequently escape, and are none the less morose after 
the experience they have gone through. Sometimes 
as a tour de force the tusker of the herd is run 
to a standstill by the trained elephants, who are 
both lighter and faster, and then the fighting males 
are brought up to secure him ; but often the injuries 
inflicted on the captive are so severe that he suc- 
cumbs to them shortly after, or, if uninjured, he 
remains untamable, and it is seldom that a really 
useful full-grown male is secured. In all cases the 
sight is somewhat sad; one sympathizes with the 
loss of dignity and freedom in so noble a beast, 
though perhaps resentful of the manner in which 
he has dominated the forest. 
The females and the calves show little opposition 
when caught. I once saw twenty-one elephants 
captured during the afternoon, and led into camp 
the same evening over seven miles of a difficult 
path. When first captured, they are dangerous to 
approach except on a tame elephant, and the females 
often refuse to allow their own calves to touch them, 
so that the sad sight of an orphan wandering round 
many mothers is sometimes witnessed; but the tame 
elephants take kindly to such waifs, and, if they are 
old enough to browse, will carefully look after them. 
There is no difficulty in leading the newly captured 
animals to water twice a day, or in marching them 
slowly to headquarters, and in about a year they 
are fit to be driven alone ; though it not infrequently 
happens that one escapes and joins the wild herd, 
even after years of domesticity, and in such circum- 
stances the animal becomes specially dangerous, for 
