Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-12-30
he leaves, regales himself upon the bark

0le leaves, regaIeS himself upon the bark
alone 1922 -f
A species OF grass (1'yp7aa e5ep1ofeta),
with leaves growing to the size of a saber-
blade, abounds in the pools of Central
India after the month of April, and is
preferred by the elephant to fig boughs.
He is also very fond of the sugar-cane, but
this is too heating food. The animal
often makes up balls of earth, generally of
red loan, and swallows them. This bolus
acts as violent cathartic, and is instinct
lively employed by the sagacious brute as
remedy for intestinal worms, with which
he is very much troubled.
The animal soon becomes attached to
the traveller who rides him, greeting his
approach with friendly cry, obeying his
highest direction, and carefully breaking
the branches bending over the path that
might strike him in passing.
M. Rousselet, to whom we are indebted
for the above particulars, employed the
elephant in great part of his travels in
India. At one time he was caught in a
dreadful storm, in march which he had
unwisely attempted in the rainy season.
The rain fell in torrents, the lightning
played in violent streaks along the ground,
and the thunder broke in incessant peals
from the sky. It was necessary, in the
course of the march, to ford a stream that
had been swollen by the deluge into
deep and furious torrent NJ Rousselet,
his travelling companion, and the mahout
were mounted upon a single elephant,
which was directed toward the ranging
current.
"The sagacious beast" writes NJ
Rousselet, " approached the water, sounded
it for moment with his trunk, as though
to test the force of the stream, and then
fell back, uttering two or three cries like
the sound of clarion, as if to protest
against our temerity. A touch with a
pike on the crown Of his head warned him,
however, that we were not inclined to dis
pute about the matter; and, bravely re-
signing himself, he dashed into the water.
His heavy bulk seemed insensible to the
strength of the current; yet it was only by
letting himself drift for few hundred
yards that he could reach the opposite
bank. There he had already planted his
fore-feet on the ground, his crupper
rounded, and we had arrived in port,
when suddenly his feet slipped and he
fell back heavily into the torrent, caus-
ing the water to dash upward above
our heads. a terrible cry Of anguish es-
capped our lips, for we were lost, The
elephant, bewildered and desperate, was
floating along, carried away by the stream,
and we could even hear the roaring Of
the falls Of the BctWah in front of us. All
at once the intelligent animal appeared to
stitfen his body. We felt him swimming;
he left the bed of the current and soon
we touched the bank But there a fresh
difficulty awaited us. We found our
selves facing an almost perpendicular
bank of clay from eight to ten feet in
height. The elephant buried his feet in
it, kneading the muddy earth, and, max
ing it yield under his repeated efforts, he
at length succeeded in following out a
passage. We had reached halfway to the
top-the ground was almost within reach
of our hands, and below Us was the tor
rent, roaring, dashing down ten yards far
Their off, over the ruins of the dyke. A
single false move Of the animal would
have been certain death to US; but the ele-
plant seemed to be as sensible as our
selves Of the imminence Of the peril, and
he worked on with incredible energy, ex-
cited by his mahout, who caressed and
supplicated him in touching accents. At
times the whole mass of his hide was con-
vul5ed with nervous tremor, and he ut
tered low, plaintive cries. At last, after
quarter Of an hours labor, the elephants
back reached the level of the ground,
when we leaped on the bank, and, re-
lieved of our weight, he soon after joined
us. 1t may be imagined with what feel
ings of gratitude I embraced the brave ami
NAL to whom we owed our lives"