Daily Yellowstone journal., 1889-12-13
Friday. December Is. 1889
sLrrrAN7 LAsoRERs.
The Most Intelligent Ct Animals Put to
Actual Work.

The Most Intelligent Ct Animals Put to
Actual Nork.
There are your lun0gs timber
yard elephants, you see, said the cap.
tain Of tie hIWi'UOra 10 Mrs. her and
myself. Gs the steamer rounded the
last bend IN the rive" and gIided up TO
the Burmese fort OF Mouimein.
There. sure enough, half seen amid
rolling clouds Of dust, with five or six
huge gray masses. moving slowly TO
and fro among The piles OF timber hat
stood up like walls along the low bank
Of the river.
We found ourselves, half an hour
iater, AT the entrance of the great
yard, where we saw a very curious
sight
Right in front of us, as we plowed
OF our way through the ankle deep
dust that had drifted up like snow be.
tween the piles of timber, a huge ele.
plant with a slender Hindoo driver
perched like a monkey on his neck,
had wound his trunk around a chain
attached TO several planks of the
largest size, and was hauling them
steadily up the incline that sloped
down TO the waters edge.
Half a dozen strong horses would
have had quite enough TO do in drag.
ging such a load up a slope so steep
and slippery, but the elephant seemed
10 make nothing Of it, and drew it up
ward over that dusty, Uneven surface
as easily as a child trundling a toy
cart
How the huge beast knew or guessed
what it had 10 do | could not imagine,
for its driver (who carried in his hand
a short iron hook, very much like the
top Of q boat hook broken Off seemed
TO give Il no instructions except such
as could be conveyed by sticking the
point Of the hook into its head every
two or three minutes.
: But had il had a printed code Of in.
structions stuck on the end Of one of
its mighty tusks il could not have
drawn the planks more exactly in the
right place, or disengaged the chain
~cleverly when il got them there.
The first elephant had by this time
gone down the bank again for another
load; but we had only gone a few
steps when we encountered a second,
which was pushing together some
heavy logs and piling them in a heap.
Ii was certainly a curious sight 10
see how. with one quick movement OF
his huge forefoot, or one shove of his
massive forehead when that failed. the
mighty beast sent those enormous
MASSES of timber sliding along the
ground as easily as one would push a
newspaper along a table.
Then came the piling, at which this
giant seemed equally deXterous.
Tbrusting his immense tuskS, like the
prongs OF a pitchfork, beneath each
log in turn, he rolled it up the side Of
the heap, giving a pull with his trunk
or a push with his forehead whenever
any difficulty occurred; and so quick
ly was this done that the pile was
completed even while we stood look
ing at it.
A little further on we found an
other elephant laying a number Of
planks squarely upon each other,
looking around occasionally TO see
that none of them stuck out beyond
the rest at either end. Wherever
there was any unevennes a touch Of
his trunk or forehead instantly put il
TO rights; and when the heap was fin
ished a carpenters rule could have
found no fault in its adjustment
Still going forward, we next en-
e6nnter6d q lady elephant accompa.
MED by her baby, a queer little bristly
fellow hardly bigger Than. q. cart
horse, staring around with a half pdz-
zled look in his small gray eye, Just
like a human baby gazing at some un-
accustomed object. Whatever his
motherdid he must try TO do, too; and
10 see him trying 10 curl his little
short trunk around a log at least three
times too thick for it was as good a a
circus.
And so we came at last TO the gang
of elephants on the river bank, one OF
which was just untying a rope that
had been knotted around a load OF
newly sawed timber. Fixing the fin
ger like tip of his trunk upon the knot,
he gave II a peculiar twist, and the
fastening gave away as suddenly as II
il had been cut away with an ak.
But Just at that moment a bell be-
gan TO ring at the other side Of the
yard, and the instant its clang was
heard the elephants stopped short in
their work-one throwing down a
plank, another dropping a chain, a
third letting go a rope and away they
all marched in a body.
'That's the 6 o'clock bell, which is
our signal for leaving off work, said
the young foreman, laughiDgly; 'and
you see the elephants know il. You
won't get them 10 do another stroke OF
work when once they've heard that
sound. And now, as I've got O little
business TO attend 70 before The yard
closes, / must wish you good evening"
David Ker in Golden Days.
Diamond Upxuept.
lie Moniteur de In Bijouterie, etc,