208 
THE ELEPHANT. 
The rudest mode of taking the elephant i® 
by digging a pit in his native forests, and co- 
vering it with loose boards and with bougb® 
and grass upon which he feeds. Towards this 
pit the herd is seduced by a tame elephant) 
when the leading pursuer falls into the trap) 
and his companions retire in great alarm- 
From the instinctive caution, however, of thiS 
animal not to tread on insecure ground, thi® 
method cannot be very successful. The mod^ 
of getting elephants out of such pits, as dC' 
scribed by Williamson, though simple, is 
tremely curious. When the animal has becom® 
sufficiently tractable to be released, large bum 
dies of jungle-grass being thrown in to him, 
is gradually raised so near to the surface as 
be enabled to step out. A very curious anc^' 
dote illustrative of the sagacity which enahlm 
this animal to avail himself of the means ^ 
escape from a disagreeable confinement is rf 
lated in Griffiths’s translation of Cuvier’s ‘ 
mal Kingdom.’ 
