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 the levels taken during the day, will often be withdrawn 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. Seep. 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. 



