IV 
THE ELEPHANT 
135 
African elephant, which is unprotected by laws in 
the absence of all government. For many ages 
these animals have contended with savage man in 
unremitting warfare, but the lance and arrow have 
been powerless to exterminate, and the natural 
sagacity of the elephant has been sufficient to pre¬ 
serve it from wholesale slaughter among pitfalls 
and other snares. The heavy breechloading rifle 
in the hands of experienced hunters is a weapon 
which nothing can withstand, and the elephants 
will be driven far away into the wilderness of an 
interior where they will be secure from the improved 
fire-arms of our modern civilisation. 
It is much to be regretted that no system has 
been organised in Africa for capturing and training 
the wild elephants, instead of harrying them to 
destruction. In a country where beasts of burden 
are unknown, as in equatorial Africa, it appears 
incredible that the power and the intelligence of 
the elephant have been completely ignored. The 
ancient coins of Carthage exhibit the African 
elephant, which in those remote days was utilised 
by the Carthaginians ; but a native of Africa, if of 
the Negro type, will never tame an animal, he only 
destroys. 
When we consider the peculiar power that an 
elephant possesses for swimming long distances, and 
for supporting long marches under an enormous 
weight, we are tempted to condemn the apathy 
even of European settlers in Africa, who have 
hitherto ignored the capabilities of this useful 
