The Green Forest tribune., 1910-07-22

"NSs' Telegraph, says:
 In the novel by that clever but contradictions writer, Sam Butler, entitled The Way of the Flesh" an amiable and philosophically minded old gentleman who pervades the story, states that when one feels worried or depressed by the incidents Of ones daily life, great comfort may be de- rived from an hour spent at the geological gardens in company with the larger mammalia. He ascribes to them remarkable soothing influence, and 1 am inclined to agree with him. l am not prepared to decide whether the effect is due to the example of pa- tience under diversity offered by these animals, or whether it is perhaps their tranquil indifference to everything but food, coupled with their magnificent success in attaining to such dignity of size, which imposes upon me and fills me for brief space with resignation and q childlike acQuiescence in things as they are. The elephant stands first as a soothing influence, and then the giraffe, the latter having special pow CTS, due to it's beautiful eyes and agreeable perfume. Sometimes the hippopotamus may diffuse charm of his own, an aura of round obesity, especially when he is bathing or sleep ing; but there are moments when one has to flee from his presence. 1 never could get on very we'll with rhin- ocerses, but the large deer, bison and wild cattle have the quality detected by Mr Butler. So has the gorgeous, well-grown tiger, in full measure, when he purrs in answer to ones voice, but the lion is pompous, ir- ritable and easily upset He never purrs. He is unpleasantly and ob- scurely spotted. He seems to be afraid of losing his dignity and to be conscious of the fact that his reputa- tion depends on the overpowering wig which he now wears, though his Mace donion forerunner had no such growth to give an illusive appearance of size and capacity to his head. However opinions may differ about these things, all will agree that the elephant Cor 
 400 years ago) is the most imposing, fascinating and astonishing of all ami mals.
 At the present day there are two species Cnly of elephant existing on the earths surface. There are the In- dian (called Elephas Indcus, but sometimes called Elephas maXimus on account of the priority which belongs to that designation, although the h. dian elephant is smaller than the 0th- er) and the African (called Elepnas Africanus). In the wild state their area of occupation has become great Iy diminished within historic times. The Indian elephant was hunted in Mesopotamia in the twelfth century, B. C., and Egyptian drawings of this species brought as tribute by Syrian vassals. Today the Indian elephant is confined to certain forests of Hin doostan, Ceylon, Burma and Siam. The African elephant extended 100 years ago all over South Africa, and in the days of the Carthaginians was found near the Mediterranean shore, wlist in prehistoric Qate pleistocene) times it existed in the south of Spain and in Sicily Now it is confined to the more central and equatorial zone of Africa, and is yearly receding before the in- cursions and destructive attacks of civilized man.
 At no great distance of time before the historic period, earlier, indeed, than the time of the herdsmen who used polished stone implements and raised great stone circles, namely, in the late pleistocene period, we find that there existed all over Europe and North Asia and the northern part of America another elephant very close ly allied to the Indian elephant, but having a bow-like outward curvature of the tusks, their tusks finally direct ed towards one another, and a thick