Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-04-07
ELEPHANT LUarBERING.
Draws and Handles Logs and Works
 Without Immediate Oversight.

|
 Draws and Handles Logs and Works Without Immediate Oversight. l America presents varied scenes and contrasting methods in it's numbering I industries, writes Leslie Harrison i'll an illustrated article in Forestry and IT, Irrigation, and while nedern invention makes use of endless cables and inn proved log tramways, there can De
 found in identical camps with these the most primitive power of sklds and
 steers. Even more than most per sons realize. the use of these slow ana- malls is still adhered to, and the yoke
 of oxen Is in reQuisition from the Maine woods to the redwood forests or California. The sole use of the OK i'll
 "a lumber camp, however, is that of the draft animal.
 ! In Burma the animal generally used
 in numbering operations is the ele- { pha1lt. While my lord the elephant"
 selves in a unique way the transporta- ! tion problem always q vexatdons enc l in numbering opera tions~ha does more than that. The stolid and slow-laov-
 tng OK can haul load from one place
 to another, but the load has to be made ETeady for him in the first place, and eaf-
 ter 1t has arrived at it's destination it ! has fo be unloaded. The elephant Itakes care of all these opera tons. Not orly is he a draft animal, but in some I instances, at a word from his driver, The picks up a timber, carries it to the designated point. and then not only de- posits it where 1t belongs, but does go Erwish precision and comparative case, Eaccenallf result almost impossi- EbIe by hand labor and with less ex- penditure of time than would be re- quired by a steam crane. In most cases an elephant driver, or n1ahOut, | is required for each elephant but hu-
 man labor is so cheap a4s not To be a
 factor in the expense The elephant l furnishes the labor which is paid for,
 and the driver is looked upon as ne
 cessary. though not altogether desir- able. coneenitant. as the native helper is not so much to be relied upon as his fbig charge. Opium and the strong
 brews of native roots work on human E
 for these. Tn many big numbering op- eratfoffs, the elephants are saenaing'y E''t0ldf what to do in the morning, and in some degree left to carry on the
 work during the day according to their own devices, Very reHnal kable are the
 slories told of their sagacity. One of Ethssse stories, vouehed for as true, con-
 cerns numbering, and tells of an ele- phant that was about to pick up log just as the great gong, whioh-ssslale
 the close of the day's work, was sound
 ed. To the surprise of the mahout,
 the log, only little larger than oth-
 CTS which had been carried, proved too ' heavy for the elephant to lift from Hthe ground Another elephant was re-
 quisftioned, but the two together failed
 to make any headway with the heavy
 timber and the attempt was given up
 In the morning the first elephant went I immediately to the timber, lifted it
 with apparent ease, and carried 1t to the required resting place.
 ] The lumber handled by these beasts
 is, however, exceedingly heavy. Most
 of it is teak, familiar to Americans in
 the form of black auaint1y carved fur niture, of a weight and hardness which
 suggests ebony. Much of 1t, when
 handlef by the elephants, is thoroughly
 water soaked Tn Rudyard Kipling's Epoen. AMandalay.' which exploits
 some of tEe charms of the capital of
 upper Burma. he speaks of
 1 Elephants a-pilin' teak
 I Tn the sIudgy. squdgy creek
 In a story, "Moti- -Gui," he tells how
 an elephant of that name was ordered to work for a period of several days.
 during which time the nahout was to
 be away. Before leaving the driver
 tapped the big elephants foot a num- h Der of times agreeing with the speci- fled number of days which the beast
 was to work while he was gone. True
 to these instructions Moti-Gui worked
 peacdhly and with ariior until the set
 time was up. At the expiration of the drivers leave the elephant refused
 to work, and threats. force and caiolerv
 were ul1availing to compel him to keen at his tasks until the recalcitrant ma hout should return. When mahout ana elephant were at last reunited EiloWeVer. all trace of stubhornness and
 bad temper disappeared from Moti- EGu1 and he resumed his tasks with an
 evident willingness. There are nanv oenef Passages where Kip1ing renders lgribefte to the sagaeity of the elephant
 Tor whose intelligence the novelist has