174 
MAMMALIA. 
[Chap. 7. 
order to surround a sufficient number, and the caution 
to be observed involves patience and delay ; as it is 
essential to avoid alarming the elephants, which might 
otherwise escape. Their disposition being essentially 
peaceful, and their only impulse to browse in solitude 
and security, they withdraw instinctively before the 
slightest intrusion, and advantage is taken of this 
timidity and love of seclusion to cause only just such 
an amount of disturbance as will induce them to re- 
turn slowly in the direction which it is desired they 
should take. Several herds are by this means concen- 
trated within such an area as will admit of their being 
completely surrounded by the watchers ; and day after 
day, by degrees, they are moved gradually onwards to 
the immediate confines of the corral. When their 
suspicions become awakened and they exhibit restlessness 
and alarm, bolder measures are adopted for preventing 
their escape. Fires are kept burning at ten paces apart, 
night and day, along the circumference of the area 
within which they are detained ; a corps of from two to 
three thousand beaters is completed, and pathways are 
carefully cleared through the jungle so as to keep open 
a communication along the entire circuit. The head- 
men keep up a constant patrol, to see that their followers 
are alert at their posts, since neglect at any one spot 
might permit the escape of the herd, and undo in a 
moment the vigilance of weeks. By this means any 
attempt of the elephants to break away is generally 
checked, and on any point threatened a sufficient force 
can be promptly assembled to drive them back. At 
last the elephants are forced onwards so close to the 
enclosure, that the investing cordon is united at either 
end with the wings of the corral, the whole forming a 
