Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 June 1882 — Instinct Of Elephants. [ARTICLE]

Instinct Of Elephants.

If nature has not given intellect to these animals, it has given them an instinct very much akin to it. A man hat only to hunt them in their wilds to learn how wonderfully Providence has taught them to choose the most favorable giound, whether for reeding or encamping, and to resort to jungles, where their ponderous bodies so resemble rock or the dark foliage, that it is very difficult for the sportsman to distinguish them from surrounding objects; while their feet are so constructed that not only can they tramp over any kind of ground, whether hard or soft, thorny or smooth but without emitting a sound. Some of their encamping grounds are models of ingenuity—some of them perfect fortresses. I once followed up a herd, and found them in a small forest surrounded on th ree sides by a tortuous river, impassable for ordinary mortals by reason either of the depth of water, itsprecipitous banks, quicksands or entangling weeds in its bed, while the fourth side was protected by a tangled thicket, further protected by a quagmire in front. To get at them without disturbing them was impossible; at last, when I did get within shot of the forest, the elephants retreated by the opposite side to that by whioh I had approached, and after following them for several hours I did not get a shot. The damage done to rioe crops, Mr, Sanderson thinks, is exaggerated. It may be so in Mysore; but in Burmah, in many places, it is excessive. While employed in survey work in the Tharawaddle district. I have been followed about by villagers pointing out the damage done and asking for a remission of tax, mistaking me for a revenue oflfloer. No one supposes elCs phants have the reasoning powerpossessed by man; if they had, we should be their slaves, and not they ours; but their instinct is wonderi ui. I will give a couple of instances; When war broke out with Burmah, a lot of elephants were sent across from Bengal to Prome by land, under the charge of Capt. Baugh, of the Bengal Twenty-sixth. Among them was a magnificent tusker. He took a dislike to this officer, why was not exactly known. Some said it was because he had knocked off the elephant’s neck his mahout; but be the reason what it may, this brute tried to kill Baugh, and him only, several times. I have seen him thrashed for this several times by other elephants armed with chains, who wielded them much as a drummer does the lash at the halberds; but it was of no use, his dislike was inveterate, he got must, would take no food except from a petfemale, (he had two lashed alongside of him,) and eventually died at Bhoaydoung As a rule, elephants are timid, quiet, and inoffensive; bnt when wounded aud closely followed up, or when must, (periodical fits to which male adult elephants are subject,) or females with young, their fury knows no hounds. They' dread fire more than anything else; but one elepixant belonging to the battery in Assam was an exception, and would assist in putting out a fire. This same elephant would do what I never knew any other to do, viz., when a beast’s neck was cut through, all but the vertebra,(it did not matter whether the beast was a buflalo, a deer, tiger, or any thing else,) it would, when ordered, put a foot on the neck,twine the trunk round the head, and, with a wrench, seperate it from the body and hand it up to the mahout. I have seen one or two elephants that would hand a dead bird up; but most of them will not touch anything of the sort. Nor would they intentionally tread upon a fallen man or beast—those used for executions in the Guicwar’s territories—Baroda—have been taught to do so. Some foolish men teacn their elephants to trample upon a dead body, and by so doing ruin them for sport. An elephant, unless vicious by nature, will only do so at first with the greatest relunctance, but after a time, if anything falls before it, it is apt to charge, ana if it does not kneel down suddenly and throw the • occupant out of the bowdah, it gets the animal between its legs, ana plays a sort of foot ball with it, throwing it backward and forward between the front and hind legs until it Is of the consistency of a jelly. Men are occasionly thrown off the back of an elephant; what would their fate on a be*st who had been taught such tricks? An elephant I bought from Mr. Tye had once been cut by a rhinocerous. Nothing would induce her to enter a Jungle where one of these animals was: the very slightest scent of one would send her flying. A splendid female muckna belonging to my department cared nothing for a tiger; would kick one out of her path without showing the slightest signs of uneasiness, but if she met a pony nothing could hold her. —[Tne London Field.]