July i, 1S91.] 
THP TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
55 
about E250, viz., actual cost of capturing E50 ; 
mabout for 5 monthB, while under training, 
B60 • oavady E35 ; fodder and rations;, R75 ; super- 
visioti and sundries R30. The value of the ele- 
phants at present possessed by the Department 
is estimated at E10,500. After capture and 
removal from the pit unnecessary severity is 
avoided, and the animals are trained, being kindly 
treated and receiving as rewards jaggery, sugar-cane 
or other delicacies. In about five months the training 
is complete and the elephants put to work with 
others in dragging timber etc. As there is a certain 
amount of personal risk incurred in the work of 
capture, rewards not exceeding KlOO are proposed to 
be granted to the subordinates employed for each 
elephant captured and properly trained and which is 
in good condition at the end of six months. 
In this connection it will not be uninteresting 
to summarise what e correspondent, who signs 
himself " Kurumber," writes to the Asian. He 
prefaces his remarks by referring to the report 
that Admiral Fremantle, while at Trineomalie, 
went on a shooting expedition to Vellar plain, 15 
miles from Mutur and there bagged two elephants, 
" a dame and her baby." Can, he asks, this 
horrible tale be true ? If it bo so. all he can 
say is that •' some people have curious ideas of 
what constitutes sport. The wanton butchery of 
harmless animals that are perfectly UBeless to 
the man who shoots them, and very often to 
every one else, is simple cruelty, and all true 
sportsmen, who are humane and do not need- 
lessly inflict pain on dumb beasts, can only 
shudder at such doings." " Kurumber " should not 
have commented on the Admiral's sport without 
having made himself acquainted with all the facts 
of tbe oase. Admiral Fremantle, we may mention, 
had shot the female when its baby, which had 
at first bolted, turned rou'id and charged the 
Admiral and his party, and in self-defence the 
former shot the innocent suckling, Th it is all. 
'• Kurumber " then refers to the reprehensible 
"induct of the Ceylon Government in allowing 
big-wig and globe trotter who visits Ceylon 
to mui^,_. ^j^g elephants without restriction. This 
IS not, we -.i;e^e^ fact, for the Government is 
just as anxiou. preserve these mammoths of 
the forest as K6.i'^^^^„ ^j^^ ^^^^^^ Govern- 
ment then come in . 
correspondent s attack. We . ^.j^^^ \l 
says, merely remarking that .^^ Mvsore Go 
vernment wishes to extermmtite the eibj,, •'^jg 
wholesale manntr attributed to it by "I^'^ -.^^er" 
it has -=very right to do so, as far as we can st^, 
"Here,5n Southern India, the Madras Government 
looks placiiiy on whilst a feudatory State (Mysore) 
carries on thfa exleimination in a more wholesale 
manner, j-nts the wild elephants have been 
most carefully PJ^^^ied by Government, apparently 
in order that the (T.n,in»r.,v,„«t „v,„„ij „„ 
trained officer lent by tne ^ Government I 
It iBiust the same htng a^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^ ^ 
latg^ and well ° ^.ub >erve, and then 
assisted your "^'gbbou , ^^ith ^ 
game-keeper to shoot down m 
s^rii^&rSo^r^it^'-kS 
elephants to preserve ! Then I presume they wil 
purchase elephants and turn them loose to re- 
stock the forest 1 Our present Governor, Lord 
Wenlock, is however a very different maa to his 
predecessors, and he has only to discover the 
terrible damage that is being done to counteract 
it as scon as possible."— M. Mail. 
^ , 
"IIISTOEY OF COFFEE:" MR. PETEK 
BROHIER'S TRANSLATION. 
Kandy, 18th May 1891. 
To the Editor of the "Tropical Agriculturist." 
Deae Sir. — I was glid to s-e ia tho Tropical Ayri- 
mtlturiift (see pages 874, Vol. X. aud 5 and 12) the traas- 
iHtion of Ibe "Hi~tory of GofFde" fr )m the 
Dutch of Valnntyn. This translation was made, about 
35 yeiirs ago, by Mr. Peter Brobier (the father of the 
present fissistant Auditor-Gdneral), who was then a 
retired public servant and had been chief clerk of 
the revenue branch of the Audit OflBcf. Mr. Brobier, 
(who was ths son of the lata Captain John Brobier 
Provincial Judge of Puttitlam)* was a good Dutch 
scholar and an accomplishei musician. After his re- 
tirement from the Governmflnt service, he spent much 
of his time iu translating Dutch works. The translation 
in question wai origiua'ly a contribution to one of 
your contemporaries. The planters of the day and 
others were much pleased with the work, and a leading 
Eunipaau geutleman wrote to the translator, that 
apart from the merits of the translation, be was quite 
delighted wi^h the humorous summaries which headed 
each chapter; aud that above all, he was charmed 
with the little Turkish poem Which wis rendered so 
feliciiously into English. This c intribution afterwards 
appeared in a Pamphlet form, and at the suggestion of 
Mr. Hew Stewart, the faoetious editor of the " Times" 
a copy of it was forwarded to BIr. Alexander Brown, 
the Secretiiry of the Planters' Association, whose at- 
attentiou was called to the fact that a preparation 
very much like " Pale Ale" might he prepared from the 
coffee husk or shell. Aud the worthy Scotch Secretary, 
whilst thanking the learned translator for the copy sent 
to ths Astociition, informed him, that he did not 
bolieve the planters were just thju prepared to try 
the experiment susgested, as the coffee berry ''pure 
and simple" was paying them haed over fist. 
—Yours faithfully, SIGMA. 
INDIAN ART APPLIED TO THE ILLUS- 
TRATION OF INDIAN EPICS. 
As a'teutioa has recently been drawn to the 
industries of Jeypore in connection with the munifi- 
cent gift of £-20,0CO to tbe Imperial Institute by Hi'a 
Highness the Maliaraja, it may not be inappropriate 
".lotiee the really arti.stio work done hy native 
artiii>^i,g jjjj^j ^.jj^^ rpjjg Kamayana shield alone 
woul I bv sufficient to prove the marvellous skill of tlie 
workman jjolds the premier place in Jeypore. 
itie general ic„a, j^ken from the Milton and Bunvan 
shields of More-.Ladeuii, and the story of the Rnma- 
y.-ma is told in a eeriea of plaques, nearly all of 
whicn are faithful reproductions in relief, in silver- 
plated brass of paintings by the mo^t celebrated artists 
^^ho flourished in Akbar's time. Ganga Baksh Khati, 
IS the workman who carii«d out the idea which Dr. 
Mendlev conceived, and visitors to Joypore, when they 
see thu s£ii=,i,i. can realise that the art of workiua- in 
metals still survive, in i.idia. The figures of men and 
ammals are perfectly reproQuc.d from the old paintings, 
and nothing is wanting in fhosa details which tbe 
native artist only too often neglects. Dr. Hendlev has 
now arranged for the production of two more Jam-e 
shields. Cue of these will be a companion to the 
Ramayana shield, the story of the Mahabarat* being 
* Captain Br^hiiMhOw^dSl^^^ 
wrote the "Historical Account of Ceylon" which 
appeared in the Ceylon Literary Register of last year 
