42 Mr. Corse’s Observations on the 
some particular facts, that elephants had their seasons in which 
they were in heat; I shall, therefore, first mention the circum- 
stances which induced me to attempt breeding from tame ele- 
phants, and then relate the success of the experiments instituted 
for this purpose. 
The circumstances to which I allude, happened in January, 
1790, at a keddah near to Comillah, the capital of Tiperah. 
Messrs. Henry Buller and George Dowdeswell, of Chit- 
tigong, being then on a visit at Comillah, accompanied me and 
several others, to see a herd of elephants which had been lately 
taken. Our visitors then proposed a trial being made, of tying 
the wild elephants immediately, in the keddah , in the manner 
practised at Chittigong, instead of waiting till they were en- 
ticed, one after another, into the narrow outlet, there to be 
secured, and led out in the usual manner.* 
This mode they recommended so earnestly, from a convic- 
tion of its superior utility ,-f that Mr. John Buller, to whom 
* Vide Asiatic Researches, Vol. III. article, “ Method of catching wild Elephants 
where this process is particularly described. 
f Though fully convinced of this, I could not bring the hunters to adopt the Chit- 
tigong method, till the year 1794. After this, during the last three years I remained 
at Tiperah, I did not lose one elephant in twenty ; whereas, by the former method, of 
tying them in the rooniee, near one-third of those taken died in less than a year, in con- 
sequence of the hurts they received from their violent efforts to get free, before they 
could be properly secured. The natives of Tiperah, and indeed of most parts of India, 
are extremely attached to old customs ; and it was with the utmost difficulty I pre- 
vailed on the hunters to deviate from the practice of their ancestors, though the method 
recommended was followed at Silhet, as well as at Chittigong. The method was, simply 
to surround a herd, in the first convenient place, with a ditch and palisade; and, when 
this was finished, to send in the koomkees, and proper persons to tie the wild elephants 
on the spot, and then conduct them, one by one, through an opening in the palisade, 
from the keddah , as soon as they were tied. 
