Ill 
THE ELEPHANT 
103 
would occur to most people that in countries where 
elephants abound we should frequently meet with 
those that are sick, or so aged that they cannot 
accompany the herd. Although for very many years 
I have hunted both in Asia and Africa I have never 
seen a sick elephant in a wild state, neither have I 
ever come across an example of imbecility through 
age. It is rarely we discover a dead elephant 
that has not met with a violent death, and only once 
in my life have I by accident found the remains of a 
tusker with the large tusks intact. This animal had 
been killed in a fight, as there were unmistakable 
signs of a fearful struggle, the ground being trodden 
deeply in all directions. 
It is supposed by the natives that when an elephant 
is mortally sick it conceals itself in the thickest and 
most secluded portion of the jungle, to die in 
solitude. Most animals have the same instinct, 
which induces them to seek the shelter of some 
spot remote from all disturbance ; and should 
we find their remains, it will be near water, where 
the thirst of disease has been assuaged at the last 
moment. 
The ox tribe are subject to violent epidemics, and 
I have not only found the bodies of buffaloes in 
great numbers upon occasions during some malignant 
murrain, but they have been scattered throughout 
the country in all directions, causing a frightful 
stench, and probably extending the infection. A 
few years ago there was an epidemic among the 
bisons in the Reipore district of India ; this spread 
