San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-02-03
AN ELEPHANT HUNT IN SIAM.
A Country Where Nearly 500 of the Big
Animals Are Captured at n Time.


A Country Where Nearly 500 of the BIG
Animals Are Captured at n Time.
One scorching morning in April, 1870,
small party of Europeans left the city
Of Bangkok, the present capital OF the
kingdom of Siam, for Ayuthia, the old
seat of government. sixty miles north
ward ND the River Menam. A hunt had
been appointed by the king, and the ele-
plants were to be brought In through
the country bordering the ancient ruins.
On the second day we arrived at
| Ayuthia, and set up our screens and
hung our mosquito bars in sala, or rest
house, by the river side.
The following morning the elephants
| arrived. Just outside the city, ard over
looking plain extending to the horizon,
was high platform, mounted by stone
steps and covered with tiled roof sup
ported by pillars. On this, screened
from the sun, and with broad outlook
over the rice fields that had lately been
shorn OF their crop, sat high official,
his aids, a few native mobiles and the
foreign guests.
The other spectators perched in trees
OF found standing room wherever the
view was most attractive. Immediately
before the platform was the stockade.
made by setting deep into the ground
teak logs two yards in girth and twenty
feet in length. These logs were so ar
ranged as to leave interspaces of about
one foot in width. They inclosed half
acre of level ground, and extended out,
at the side opposite the platform, into
a funnel shaped entrance only wide
enough, where it joined the stockade, for
the passing of a single elephant.
Gazing far across the stubbly plain
we saw the troop of elephants, encom-
passed by the many hunters who had
been sent months before into the wilder
ness to entice the wild animals toward a
rendezvous. The families, scattered in
the jungles, foraging among the luxuri-
ant heritage, had been separately entered
by tame decoy elephants, under the di-
rection Of willy hunters, and one had fol-
lowed another into captivity. Two hun
bred and eighty elephants had thus been
brought together. The sound of their
roaring was like that of distant thunder,
and as they approached the earth seemed
to shake under their tread.
By skillful combination of leading
and driving they were slowly urged
along toward the stockade. Foremost
were the decOyers, trained to their work,
which they do with complacent discre-
ton. They were ridden by experts in
elephant training, and followed by the
wild herds in which were elephants of
all ages. Hemming in the assemblage
on the sides and in the rear, many other
tanned elephants directed by their riders
urged on the laggards with their long
tusks and shouldered the stragglers into
place.
Occasionally huge fellow, becoming
conscious of being directed by will not
his own, would rear, trumpet protest,
bolt through the Gordon of sentinels and
gallOp toward the distant woods. But
these fugitive5 were quickly chased by
three or four trained beasts, and were
soon brought back to the ranks. Only
one, a majestic creature with enormous
snowy tusks. distanced his pursuers and
regaincd freedom III the bush.-St Mich
olas.