19 
ENTRAINING ELEPHANTS AT JHANSI, 
BT 
MAJOR J. H. ROSSETER, R.A, 
In the c< Proceedings ” of the R.A. Institution for January, 1893, 
extracts were published from the “ Instructions for the Conveyance by 
Rail of Artillery in India,” and tables showing the composition of the 
various trains were given. It may be remembered that the first of the 
four trains allotted for the conveyance of a Heavy Field Battery was 
composed principally of elephant trucks. A short account of entrain¬ 
ing elephants in a truck designed and fitted by the Indian Midland 
Railway at Jhansi may, perhaps, interest some Artillery officers. 
Description of Truck. 
A stroug cage was made in the centre of an open low-sided goods 
truck. The framework of this cage was of rails similar to those used 
for the permanent way ; the uprights were bent up at the bottom and 
securely bolted to the sides of the truck. Two cross-pieces sliding 
along the lower bar were clamped close to the chest and hind-quarters 
of the elephant when in the truck, and a hood with side shutters pre¬ 
vented the animal seeing passing objects when on the move. 
The whole of the fittings were very strong, and their great advantage 
was that the elephant, being fixed in the centre of the truck and having 
only a few inches to move in any way, could not sway about and thereby 
endanger the stability of the truck. 
Entraining the Elephants. 
The first elephant to be enticed into the cage was one which has 
completed 24 years 5 service, has marched thousands of miles with the 
battery, and was harnessed to one of Major Tillard’s 1 guns which he 
brought into action at Ahmed Khel. This sagacious creature walked 
straight into the truck. 
All the 18 elephants of the battery were successfully entrained by 
Captain A. H. Block, R.A. Some of them gave a considerable amount 
of trouble; one fought and resisted for upwards of two hours, and 
finally had to be forced into the truck backwards. 
The method adopted was as follows, and was very nearly the same 
1 Now Major-General Tillard. Vide “Achievements of Field Artillery/’ by Major E. S. May, 
R.A., in “ Proceedings ” R.A,I., February, 1893. 
J. YOB. XXI. 
