ELEPHANT LIFE IN ENGLAND 
161 
England, since the days when the owner of such a 
valuable animal was not only incapable of keeping 
it with safety, but ignorant of the means to kill it 
humanely. The average duration of their life in this 
country is now probably well over fifty years ; and 
though this does not contrast favourably with the 
eighty years of the Indian studs, there is every 
prospect that it will increase. The office of mahout 
promises to become almost as hereditary here as 
in India ; and while traditions of elephant manage- 
ment are handed down from one generation of 
keepers to another, so it is noticed that the new 
and acquired habits practised by the more experienced 
and sagacious animals are observed and copied by 
the young arrivals. The elephant is being slowly 
Europeanized. 
M 
