The Osceola times., 1880-10-30
Ei EPHANTS.
Some Odd Facts about these Huge AMI
mails.

some Odd Facts about these Hugc Ami
mails.
Twice around an elephants forefoot
gives his height to within an inch or two.
As regards age, looking to their peculiar
dentition and other circumstances, Mr..
Sanderson thinks it by no means i'm
probable elephants live to $50 or 200
years. No one has ever apparently,
seen the remains of n dead elephant,
and this circumstance is so marked as
TO have given Use TO belief among some
wild tribes that wild elephants never die,
while others believe that there is a place
unseen by human eye to which they
retire and end their days. In Mr. San
| derson's wanderings for years through
| elephants jungles he has not only never
seen the remains of an elephant that
had died natural death, but he has
| never met anyone among the jungle
tribes or professional hunters who had.
The Cingalese have superstition that
ON feeling the approach OF dissolution
the elephant retires to solitary valley
and there resigns himself TO death.
There Is a similar belief III India, but
Mr.. Sanderson shows that II is untenable,
One would not expect to hear that ele-
plants are expert swimmers, though
they can no more jump Il ditch eight
feet wide than they can dance a ahornpipe.
such, however seems TO be the case
from the fact that large numbers of them
are annually sent across the tideway Of
the Ganges between Dacca and Barrack-
pore, and are sometimes six consecutive
hours without touching the bottom,
Mr.. Sanderson has seen an elephant
swim river 300 yards wide with his
hind legs tied together. They are
sometimes drowned, apparently by
being attacked with cramps or with u
fit.
The belief that wild elephants have
decreased in India is shown by Mr.. San
derson to be incorrect. The records of
the past fifty years attest that there is
no elimination in the numbers obtain
able in Bengal, while in Southern India
elephants have become so numerous of
late years that they are annually appear
ing in places where they have never
been heard of before. In fact, Mr.. san
derson thinks that unless something il
done the rife will have TO be used to
protect the ryots of tracts bordering on
elephant jungles. To give an idea OF the
number of wild elephants in some parts
Of India, the lecturer stated that during
the past three years sos elephants have
been captured by the Decca Kheddah
establishment, in tract OF country forty
miles long by twenty broad, in the Caro-
hills, while not less than 1000 were met
with during the hunting operations.
The lecturer gave a graphic description
of the different modes Of capturing and
training the elephant. Here is an ex-
tract:
"When an elephant chases the men
they betake themselves to the shelter of
tree trunks, bamboo clumps, or long
grass, and ii is astonishing to see how
they frequently escape uninjured. !
have known many cases of men stand
ing against tree or hiding in tufts of
long g:ass within a couple of yards of
elephants that were pausing in indecision
without being discovered, though the
elephants were evidently aware Of their
close proximity, as they kicked up the
ground in anger and 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.
| saw one make a narrow escape few
months ago lie ran from an elephant
and climbed tree; the elephant butted
the trunk and the man fell down, but
his pursuer was SO astonished at the
sight that she ilel at once. Sometimes
drives are conducted by torchlight, and
these seldom fail, owing to the ele-
phant's fear of fire. The scenes on
these occasions are exciting beyond de-
ucri,,tion -