The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-06-28

I , ward the domestication of the anima
 and high hopes are entertained il
 France and in other countries interest
 ed that the experience which the train
 CTS in Africa are acquiring every veal
 will place the work on scientific basis
 before a very great while, and that the
 elephant may gradually be adapted tC
 serve many useful purposes.
 Thus far the results are small. Ac-
 cording to our present information
 there are, to- day, just eleven domestic
 elephants in Africa One of them, the first of the series is in the French Con- go; three are in the German Came rooms; three in the Belgian Congo; one
 is at Mossamedes in Portuguese terri 1 tory and three are in Abyssinia, two of
 them belonging to Emperor Menelek. An interesting letter written by M. | du Bourg de Rozas, in charge of the French mission sent to Abyssinia, a while ago, has just been published in Le Tour du Monde, He tells of the capture and tanning of a young elephant
 there. In one of his hunts he killed -a female elephant. A few minutes later,
 her young offspring. coming to seek her,
 was captured. The rapidity with
 which he became accustomed to the
 presence of men andalearned to trust
 them was remarkable. Within an hour
 after he was capturedg all signs of fear
 disappeared and the little animal was
 easily led to the camp. As he plainly manifested a preference for one of the men who was cltd in red cotton, this vi6IJy ap1nral tpxtiIn nGpd thlrn- after as factor in his education. Red cotton seemed to have hypnotic effect upon him. He would follow anyone dressed in red all day long as docilely as dog, After the first hour of his capture he never manifested the slight est trace of fear or any indication of mischievousness or treachery. In short, he was good little elephant.
 For three months he marched with the party, docile and contented and on easy and familiar terms with every body. The expedition, unfortunately, was compelled for eight days to travel a region that was destitute of water and had the scantiest of herbage. The were necessarily forced and the poor little elephant had little op- pOlLuIllty lO IGots llC 1S0dlt Wti1 Iiloe he succumbed to these trying condi- tions. Tn, view of the ease with which h was thoroughly domesticated his master expresses the opinion that 1t is not at all difficult to tame elephants which are not over two or three years of age. He thinks that older animals l have usually been made wild and sav- age by their encounters with the native hunters to be easily tanned. There are few old elephants in Africa, he says | hat do not bear the marks of wounds received from the natives.
 Emperor MeneIek has two elephants | hat have been trained to haul his can lon. It is said that they perform their luty as efficiently as United States mules do and are less subject to fits of ,ad temper. Ras Makonnen, one of the has an elephant that served Jim all through the recent war in Tigre IS means of transport for heavy box IS of cartridges.
 M. Paul Bourdarie of France, who is ;ivlng much attention to the domesti- ation of the African elephant, says hat as long as the young animal is not yer about three feet in height 1t is easy to capture him, his mother being killed; his tusks are not 1ng enough to be dangerous, and when e is firmly seized by the trunk is oon rendered powerless. An animal hat is four feet or more in height is 1uch more difficult to capture.
 The same writer says that Jas far as e has observed the loss of young ele- hants in captivity has been due more ) the negligence of the Europeans narge of them than to the feehleness of le animals or the difficulty of nourish- lg them. One trouble has been that le natives, who think that every cap- Ired animal should be turned over to lem for food, are likely to poison the ephants committed to their care. Of le seven young elephants, for exam e. that the German Lieutenant Won ottner has captured in the Cameroons ithin the past two years, four were poisoned by the blacks of s escort When he discovered the na- ire of the trouble Von Lottner took ' Ire to protect the remaining three om harm, with the result that they we all thrlved and are made useful cry day in the transportation service. 3c