166 
MAMMALIA. 
[Chap. V. 
Portuguese cwrral, a " cattle-pen "), consists of but one 
enclosure instead of three. A stream or watering-place 
is not uniformly enclosed within it, because, although 
water is indispensable after the long thirst and ex- 
haustion of the captives, it has been found that a pond 
or rivulet within the corral itself adds to the difficulty 
of leading them out, and increases their reluctance to 
leave it ; besides which, the smaller ones are often smo- 
thered by the others in their eagerness to crowd into 
the water. The funnel-shaped outlet is also dis- 
pensed with, as the animals are liable to bruise and 
injure themselves within the narrow stockade; and 
should one of them die in it, as is too often the case 
in the midst of the struggle, the difficulty of removing 
so great a carcase is extreme. The noosing and securing 
them, therefore, takes place in Ceylon within the area 
of the first enclosure into which they enter, and the 
dexterity and daring displayed in this portion of the 
work far surpasses that of merely attaching the rope 
through the openings of the paling, as in an Indian 
keddah. 
One result of this change in the system is manifested 
in the increased proportion of healthy elephants which 
are eventually secured and trained out of the number 
originally enclosed. The reason of this is obvious : 
under the old arrangements, months were consumed in 
the preparatory steps of surrounding and driving in the 
herds, which at last arrived so wasted by excitement 
and exhausted by privation that numbers died within 
the corral itself, and still more died during the process 
of training. But in later years the labour of months is 
reduced to weeks, and the elephants are driven in fresh 
and full of vigour, so that comparatively few are lost 
