THE ELEPHANT

New Zealand Tablet, 12 September 1912, Page 61

THE ELEPHANT

The wild elephant; when in a herd, is perhaps the noisiest of the jungle animals (writes S. Eardely-Wilmot in Forest Life and Sport in India for the reason probably, that he has no fear of other beasts, and little of man ; and so it is that when the mothers cease from trumpeting and gurgling, and the calves from-squealing and squeaking, there is yet the constant sound of the breaking of bamboos. The most dangerous way to approach a herd is to ride up to it on a tame elephant, unless he is very fast. The safest way is to go on foot, especially if the ground is at all steep, for an elephant cannot run quickly across a slope, nor can he climb a perpendicular bank of six feet high without breaking for himself an easier gradient; but he can come down hill like a tornado, and will slide down a bank that a man would have to descend carefully, by the simple method of kneeling on his hind legs and letting himself go. As to the enemies of wild elephants, they have none save man and those of their own household. An animal that with one kick can send' a boar staggering to his death ten yards away, and can throw a bear violently on the ground and then stamp him to a the t not fear be assaulted when coming through It is only when furious with pain that a tiger will dare to attack the elephant, and no animal but the rhinoceros cares to measure strength with him. Perhaps no animal is so useless, in the wild state and so useful m captivity as the elephant.