ELEPHANT LIFE IN ENGLAND 
*57 
the Society for nearly twenty years, and that in his 
opinion they are quite as intelligent as those of the 
Indian species, though perhaps not quite so docile. 
He suggests that a keddah of Indian elephants and 
their attendants should be transported to the East 
African coast, and that the Indian elephants should 
be used to capture and tame their African brethren. 
General Gordon, shortly before the disaster at 
Khartoum, wrote to Dr. Sclater advocating the em- 
ployment of the elephant in Africa, and making 
inquiries as to its possibility. The size which the 
African elephant will attain under favourable con- 
ditions in this country is well illustrated by the case 
of “ Jumbo.” When this elephant came to the 
Gardens he was about four feet high and weighed 
700 lbs. At first he was troublesome, but after a 
short time became perfectly manageable, and grew 
very rapidly. This was attributed by Mr. Bartlett, 
in his remarks on a paper read before the Society 
of Arts in 1884, by Colonel Sanderson, to good food, 
and a daily bath in hot weather. In sixteen years 
he grew from four feet to eleven feet in height. By 
that time he was probably twenty-three years old. 
An elephant does not reach its prime till thirty-five, 
and Jumbo increased another ton after a year at 
Barnum’s ; he was therefore probably not full grown 
at the time of his lamented death. 
The reasons for his sale were not very clearly 
stated at the time of his transfer. The cause of sale, 
in the case of any animal, is never a point on which 
