30 
A TREATISE ON ELEPHANTS. 
ill-health and mortality prevalent amongst them may in a great 
measure be attributed to this cause. The smaller kinds of animals 
employed for transport are born and bred in captivity, and have 
thus by custom, training and other causes become more or less 
inured to hardships, but with elephants the case is entirely different ; 
here, we have animals that have lived a natural life for many years, 
when one day (unfortunately for themselves) they are surrounded 
in their native haunts and captured. Soon after capture they are 
trained, put to work, frequently overworked, often neglected, and 
altogether submitted to conditions in every way foreign to their nature 
and well-being. It should not be a matter of surprise that the 
-mortality runs high. Therefore it cannot be too forcibly impressed 
on the persons entrusted with their care, that untiring and vigilant 
supervision over the attendants, not merely giving orders but 
seeing them carried out whenever circumstances permit, is the 
means above all others for the proper preservation of the efficiency 
of the animals ; they must remember that the class of men 
usually attending the elephants, if left to themselves, are from 
general indolence, carelessness, or from a desire to avoid the 
fatigue and hardships of jungle-life, or a campaign, quite liable 
to render their elephants unserviceable ; ample supervision and 
systematic checks can alone prevent malpractices. A little neglect 
will often deprive an owner or a force of the valuable services of 
many animals. 
As regards elephants employed in forest operations in Burma, 
the life of the elephant is frequently the only security capitalists 
have against advances made for timber to be worked through their 
aid. The percentage of deaths that annually occur amongst 
elephants employed in this branch of industry is probably from lo 
to 20 per cent. Not an inconsiderable number of such deaths 
are due to over-exertion and exposure, and ignorance on the part 
of native owners as to the powers of endurance of an animal and 
their inability to detect the first symptoms of exhaustion ; while 
in many instances they attempt to exact from a poor beast the last 
effort of strength it is capable of exerting. With reference to timber- 
dragging operations in Burma and Siam, the duration of daily 
employment naturally varies with the time of year, physical aspect 
of the country, and the food and water-supply. In timber-yards in 
Rangoon and Moulmein, where elephants are much exposed to the 
sun, they usually work from three to four hours in the morning and 
three hours in the afternoon. In forests, where the shade of the 
trees afford shelter from the direct rays of the sun, and where the 
country is not too hilly, or the drag too heavy, the hours of work 
generally extend from about seven or eight o'clock in the morning 
