132 
MAMMALIA. 
[Chap. III. 
doubtful 1 solidity, appears to me, so far as my own ob- 
servation and experience extend, to be exaggerated, and 
the number of temporary bridges which are annually 
broken down by elephants in all parts of Ceylon, is 
sufficient to show that, although in captivity, and when 
familiar with such structures, the tame ones may, and 
doubtless do, exhibit all the wariness attributed to them ; 
yet, in a state of liberty, and whilst unaccustomed to 
such artificial appliances, their instincts are not suffi- 
cient to ensure their safety. Besides, the fact is adverted 
to elsewhere 2 , that the chiefs of the Wanny, during the 
sovereignty of the Dutch, were accustomed to take in 
pitfalls the elephants which they rendered as tribute to 
government. 
A fact illustrative at once of the caution and the 
spirit of curiosity with which an elephant regards an 
unaccustomed object has been frequently mentioned to 
me by the officers engaged in opening roads through the 
forest. On such occasions the wooden " tracing pegs " 
which they are obliged to drive into the ground to mark 
the levels taken during the day, will often be withdrawn 
by the elephants during the night, to such an extent as 
frequently to render it necessary to go over the work a 
second time, in order to replace them. 3 
Colonel Hardy, formerly Deputy Quarter-Master- 
Greneral in Ceylon, when proceeding, about the year 
1820, to a military out-post in the south-east of the 
island, imprudently landed in an uninhabited part of 
1 " One of the strongest instincts vol. i. pp. 17, 19, 66. 
which the elephant possesses, is this 2 Wolf's Life and Adventures, 
which impels him to experiment p. 151. See p. 115, note. 
upon the solidity of every surface 3 Private Letter from Dr.' Davy, 
which he is required to cross." — author of An Account of 'the Interior 
Menageries, §c. " The Elephant," of Ceylon. 
