322 NATURAL HISTORY READER. 



do. For instance, when elephants arc taught to pile logs 

 in a timber-yard, in the East Indies, they will go on pil- 

 ing without any command from their masters ; and they 

 are taught, when the pile grows high, to lean two logs 

 against it and roll the remaining logs to the top. 



2. I remember a story told by Sir James Tennent which 

 shows this independence of action in the elephant. He 

 says : " One evening, when riding in the vicinity of Kandy, 

 my horse showed some excitement at a noise which ap- 

 proached us in the thick jungle, and which consisted of 

 the ejaculation urmph ! urmph ! in a hoarse and dissatis- 

 fied tone. A turn in the forest explained the mystery, by 

 bringing me face to face with a tame elephant, unaccom- 

 panied by any attendant. He was laboring painfully to 

 carry a heavy beam of timber, which he balanced across his 

 tusks ; but, the pathway being narrow, he was forced to 

 bend his head to one side to permit it to pass endways, and 

 the exertion and inconvenience combined led him to utter 

 the dissatisfied sounds. On seeing us halt, the elephant 

 raised his head, reconnoitered us a moment, then flung 

 down the timber and forced himself backward among the 

 brushwood so as to leave a passage, of which he exjoected 

 us to avail ourselves. 



3. "My horse still hesitated ; the elephant observed it, 

 and impatiently thrust himself still deeper into the jungle, 

 repeating his cry of urmph ! but in a voice evidently meant 

 to encourage us to come on. Still the horse trembled, and 

 being anxious to observe the instinct of the two sagacious 

 creatures, I forbore any interference. Again the elephant 

 wedged himself farther in among the trees, and waited 

 impatiently for us to pass him ; and after the horse had 

 done so, tremblingly and timidly, I saw the wise creature 

 stoop and take up his heavy burden, trim and balance 

 it on his tusks, and resume his route, hoarsely snorting as 

 before. " 



