The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-06-16
THE VANISHING ELEPHANT.
History of the Species which
"spOrtsmen" Are Destroying.
From the London Standard.


From the London Standard
The persecution of the African elephant
by sportsmen and others is lamented.
This magnificent animal is not, perhaps.
30 near extinction as some recent &C
counts would seem to suggest. Indeed,
the convention recently made between the
countries most interested should serve to
check indisoriminate butchery. Unfor-
tunately, however, the increase OF man
means the decrease of the beasts of the
field. The great herbivorous creatures
have large apostles and prefer the
fruits of cultivation to those of nature.
A full sized pachyderm in maize field
or kitchen garden is about as bad as
bull in a china shop; we can hardly won
der, therefore, that the settlers wage
war on big game. Efforts were made to
preserve a small herd of hippopotAmi in
one OF the Natal rivers, but they became
such marauders that they had to be
killed off. This was unfortunate, for they,
like the rhinoceros and elephant, are old
time creatures, and their numbering forms
seem constructed after ancient patterns.
The elephant alone has lived on this
earth longer than man; it made Its way
to these islands some time in advance OF
its future destroyer. But the genus once
had wider range than now. 1t has been
found in all the great regions OF the
globe except Australia and South Amer
lea, though in the Northern continent Of
the New World a closely allied genus,
called the maStodon. was more common
Even the Maltese islands had couple
of species which, in harmony with their
restricted range, were pigny forms, about
| the size of donkeys. In our own ISLANDS
| primeval man, when he had no
| better weapons than roughly
Clipped hints, must have some
time hunted the ancestors both of the
Indian and the African elephant. The In
former, well known to us as the mann
| moth, was quite at home in cold eli
mate for 1t had developed a woolly COW
| ering to keep itself warm. 1t ranged to
the extreme north of Asia, and its car
cass has been found frozen up in mud
! and ice on the Siberian Tundras. In fact,
unlike the modern Indian elephant, which
| Is undoubtedly its descendant, it seems
| to have disliked warmth, for in Europe
it hardly reaches the extreme south. while
the ancestor of the African elephant new
| err wandered so far north as the man.
moth, and is found on both sides of the
Mediterranean. Indeed, the present Afri-
can species once existed in Spain. In each
case the older forms are regarded as spe-
| cificaly distinct from those now living,
! but yet as their undoubted progenitors.
| The African elephant may be readily
distinguished from the Indian. It's ears
are larger and OF a different shape: so
also is the forehead; the folds of enamel
| on its molar teeth make another pattern
| its tusks often are slightly larger, and
| the animal is, on the whole, little big
ger, All that the Indian elephant can do
the African should be capable of doing.
1t is said to be more powerful and active,
more rapid in its movements, especially
on broken ground According to Sir Sam
uel Baker, it could beat an Indian ele-
plant in a race, and keep up the pace
for a longer time. 1t is also said to en-
| dure the sun better. This species was
! often brought to Rome in the days of the
empire, and the animals were tame
CROUCH to be led in professions and ex-
hibited in the arena. Pliny has plenty to
| say about both kinds in his Natural His
| tory including some stories which we
| fear would not now command res2ect
| Elephants figured, as every one knows,
| in the Punic wars; indeed Hannibal man
aged to bring nearly forty of them across
| the Alps, though 1t was hard work to get
| them down the slipper slope on the Hal-
| ian side of the pass. The late Mr. Oswell
| suggested that these were not native ami
mails, but imported from India. This, how
ever, is not very likely. Though the spe
cies rs said to be rather less docile than
| the Indian, 1t could probably be made
| useful, If enough trouble were taken.