REMINISCENCES FROM THE MELBOURNE ZOO. 
133 
shown the slightest inclination to break bounds, but the infection caught 
her and she bolted incontinently after the runaway. Both of them 
walked through a five-strand wire fence as though the wires were cob- 
webs. They left the wires dangling without the least apparent exer- 
tion, and certainly the impediment did not stop them for a second. 
Ranee did not get to the stable as easily as Siam. She mistook the 
side entrance of a keeper’s residence for her goal, and thrust her head 
through the gate. She could not possibly have got her body through 
it, but she could have got the fence down as easily as she had severed 
the wires. The keeper’s wife was sweeping her verandah when the 
great head came through, but she had presence of mind enough to lift 
her broom and push it into Ranee’s face. This sent the elephant back 
to seek more hospitable quarters, and when the keepers caught up to 
them, both Ranee and Siam were standing meekly outside their stable 
gate awaiting admission. That was the only attempt at a “fling” poor 
old Ranee had during her long career. 
DISARMED. 
There is a magnificent elephant at the Sydney Zoological gardens. 
It is an African, which is very much larger than the Indian elephant, 
and grows much more valuable tusks. This elephant is said to have 
killed a man when he belonged to Wirth’s circus. He one day showed 
fight to his keeper at the Zoo. The man by some means got in front 
of him as they were going to his house, and at once the elephant caught 
him on his tusks and flung him high into the air. Fortunately the man 
fell on his feet — had he not done so he would have been trampled to 
death in an instant. He turned around at once and charged the elephant 
with his goad, giving him such a thrashing that he was frightened 
into submission. This beast had tusks so long that he could not lower 
his head for them. They touched the ground, and crossed near the 
bottom. One day as he was going into his bath, his feet slipped, and 
he broke both tusks off near his mouth. Although his beauty was 
spoiled, his greatest means of offence was gone as well, and since then 
he has not been an object of dread. 
