Quadrupeds. 



8519 



but never measured one longer than six feet two inches, including the 

 part set in the head. I have met dozens of men who have seen the 

 elephant there, but my own experience has been limited to finding 

 their traces near the sea-beach. It is generally believed that about a 

 hundred years ago the East India Company sent to the Sultan of Sulu 

 a present of these animals ; that the Sultan said these great creatures 

 would certainly eat up the whole produce of his little island,- and 

 asked the donors to land them at Cape Unsang, on the north-east 

 coast of Borneo, where his people would take care of them. But it is 

 contrary to their nature to take care of any animal that requires much 

 trouble, so" the elephants sought their own food in the woods, and soon 

 became wild. Hundreds now wander about, and constantly break into 

 the plantations, doing much damage ; but the natives sally out with 

 huge flaming torches, and drive the startled beasts back to the woods. 

 The ivory of Bornean commerce is generally produced from the dead 

 bodies found jn the forests, but there is now living one man who 

 derives a profitable trade in fresh ivory. He sallies out on dark 

 nights, with simply a waist-cloth and a short sharp spear : he crawls 

 up to a herd of elephants, and, selecting a large one, drives his spear 

 into the animal's belly. In a moment the whole herd is on the move, 

 frightened by the bellowing of their wounded companion, who rushes 

 to and fro, until the panic spreads, and they tear headlong through 

 the jungle, crushing before them all the smaller vegetation. The 

 hunter's peril at this moment is great, but fortune has favoured him 

 yet, as he has escaped being trampled to death. In the morning he 

 follows the traces of the herd, and, carefully examining the soil, 

 detects the spots of blood that have fallen from the wounded elephant. 

 He often finds him, so weakened by loss of blood as to be unable to 

 keep up with the rest of the herd, and a new wound is soon inflicted. 

 Patiently pursuing this practice, the hunter has secured many of these 

 princes of the forest." In another place (vol. i. p. 396), but again 

 w r ith reference to the valley of the Kina Batangan river, Mr. St. John 

 remarks, " As this is the only country in Borneo where the elephants 

 are numerous, it is the only one where ivory forms an important article 

 of trade in the eyes of the natives." Now, I am well aware of 

 Mr. Darwin's calculation as to what the accumulated progeny of one 

 pair of slow-breeding elephants might amount to in the course of five 

 centuries, supposing that nought happened to check their increase in 

 the geometrical ratio ; but I doubt exceedingly that, in the instance 

 under consideration, the existing great herds of elephants in the north- 

 eastern peninsula of Borneo have descended from some two or three 



