The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1880-10-07
Queer Notes on Elephants.

Twice round an elephants forefoot
gives his height to within an inch or
two. As regards age, looking to their
peculiar dentition and other circum-
stances, Mr.. Sanderson thinks it by NO
means improbable that elephants live
to $50 or 200 years. No one has ever,
apparently, seen the remains of dead
elephant and this circumstance is so
i. marked as to have given rise to the be-
lief among some wild tribes that wild
elephants never die; whilst others be-
lieve that there is place unseen by
human eye to which they retire to end
their days. In Mr.. Sanderson's wan
behring's for years through elephant jun
giles, he has not only never seen the re-
mains of an elephant that had died a
natural death, but he has never met any
one among the jungle tribes or profess
sional hunters who had. The Cingalese
have a superstition that on feeling the
approach of dissolution the elephant re-
tires to a solitary valley and there re-
signs himself to death. There is SIM
liar belief in India, but Mr.. Sanderson
shows that it is untenable. One would
not expect to hear that elephants are
expert swimmers, though they can no
more jump trench eight feet wide
than they can dance a hornpipe. Such,
however, seems to be the case from the
fact that large numbers of them are an
nually sent across the tideway of the
Gauges between Dacca and Barrack-
pore and are sometimes six consecutive
hours without touching the bottom. Mr..
Sanderson has seen All elephant swim
river 800 yards wide with his hind legs
tied together. They are sometimes
drowned, apparently by being attacked
with cramps or with a fit.
The belief that wild elephants have
decreased in India is shown by Mr..
Sanderson to be incorrect. The records
of the past fifty years attest that there
is no diminution in the numbers now
obtainable in Bengal, whilst in South
ern India elephants have become so nu-
merous of late years that they are an
nually appearing in places where they
. have never been heard of before. In
fact, Mr.. Sanderson thinks that unless
something be done, the rifle will have
to be used to protect the ryots of tracts
bordering upon elephant jungles. To
give an idea of the number of wild ele-
plants in some parts of India, the lee
turer stated that during the past
three years SOB elephants have been
captured by the Dacca Kheddah estab-
lishment in a tract of country forty miles
long by twenty broad in the Caro- Hills,
whilst not less than 1000 were met
with during the hunting operations.
The lecturer gave graphic description
OF the different modes of capturing and
training the elephant. Here is an ex-
tract: 9 When an elephant chases the
men they betake themselves to the shell
ter of tree trunks, bamboo clumps of
long grass, and it is astonishing to see
how they frequently escape uhinjured.
i have known many cases of men stand
ing against a tree, or hiding in tufts of
long grass within a couple of yards of
elephants that were pausing in indecis-
ion, without being discovered, though
the elephants were aware of their close
proximity, as they kicked up the ground
IN anger and then made off. In such
cases the slightest movement would
have led to the hunters being instantly
trampled to death. Men are frequently
killed, of course, but they are almost
always young hands who are learning.
isaw one such make a narrow escape
Q few months ago. He ran from an ell
ephant and climbed a tree; the elephant
butted the trunk and the man fell down.
but the pursuer was so astonished at
the sight that she fed at once. Some
times drives are conducted by torch
light, and those seldom fail, owing to
the elephants fear of fire. The scenes
on these occasions are exciting beyond
description. "-Lepdon Globe.