The Grant County herald. (Big Stone City, Grant County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1883, 1880-10-16
QUEER NOTES ON ELEPHANTS
Some Odd facts About These Huge Animals
London Globe

Some Odd facts About These Huge Animals
| London Globe.
Twice round an elephants torefoot
gives his height to within an inch or two.
AS regards age, looking to their peculiar
| dentiuon and other circumstances, Mr..
Sanderson thinks it by no means i'm.
! probable that elephants live to one hun
dred and fifty or two hundred years. No
one, has ever, apparently, seen the re-
mains OF a dead elephant, aud this cir
| cumstancc is so marked as to have given
rise to the beilet among some wild tribes
that Wild elephants never die, while 9th
ers oeileve that there is place unseen
by human eye TO which they retire and
end their DAYS. In Mr.. Sanderson's wan
derIngs tor years through elephant jun
giles he has not only never seen the re-
mains OF an elephant who had died a
natural death, but he has never met any
one among the Jungle tribes or profes-
sonai hunters who had The Cingalese
have superstition that on feeling the
approach of dissolution the elephant re-
tires to solitary valley and there resigns
| himself 10 death. There is simila. be-
! lief IN India, but Mr. Sanderson shows
that it Is untenable One would not ex-
| pect 10 hear that elephants are expert
swimmers, though they can no more
Jump fence eight feet wide than they
can dance hornpipe Such, however,
seems 10 be the case from the fact that
large numbers of them are annually sent
| across the tldeway Of the Ganges between
Dacca and Barrackpore, and are some
times SIX consecutive hours without
touching the bottom. Mr.. sanderson
has seen an elephant swim "a river three
hundred yards wide with his hind legs
tied together. They are sometimes
drowned. apparently BY being attacked
with cramps or with lit.
Tie beiief that wild elephants have
decreased in India is shows by Mr. san.
derson 10 be Incorrect Tie records Of
tic pas. fifty years show there il no dl-
mlnHtlon il the numbers oDtaisauie in
Bengal, while III southern India Gle
plants lave become So numerous {. late
years that they are annually appearing
in places where they have never boen
heard 1T before In TACT. Nr. sanderson
rife Will have to bc used II protect the
ryots ot tracts bordering upon elephant
Ilungles To give an idea 1T the number
of Wild elephants in some parts oi lndia
tile lecturer stated that during the past
three years 5e3 elephants have oeen cap
turei Nv the Decca kheddall establish
mcnt in tract Of country forty miles
long by twenty broad III the Caro- Hills,
while mol less than ,000 were met with
Iduring tile hunting operations. Tie lee
turer gave graphic description q the
different modes Of capturing and tram
ing the elephant. Here IS al extract.
"When an elephant chascs the men they
betake themselves to tie shelter OF tree
| trunks, bamboo clumps, or long grass,
and il Is astonishing to see how they ire
auently escape un,niured. | have known
many cases Of men standing against
i tree or hiding III tufts OF grass within
j. couple Of yards o elephants that were
pausing III indccision without beng as
covered, though the elephants We're eVl=
| IDENTIFY aware OF their close proximity, a.
they kicked up the ground IN anger ana
made OF. In such cases the slightest
movement would have led 70 the nun
ters being instantly trampled to death.
Men are frequently Killed Of course, but
they are aim st always young hands VINO
| are learning | saw one make narrow
escape few months ago. lie ran from
an elephant and climbed tree; the ele
phant Dutted the trunk and the man iell
down: but his pusuer was 50 astonlshed
at the sieht that she fled Al once. Some
times drives are connected by tarchhght
and these seldom fail, owing to the eie-
phants fear Of tire. The scenes on these
occasions Are exciting beyond deserip-