Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 April 1875 — Capture of a Herd of Elephants. [ARTICLE]

Capture of a Herd of Elephants.

A correspondent of Z/irt'? and Water tells of the capture, in the Mysore District, India, of a herd of elephants, numbering forty-nine head: An irrigating canal winds through a dense jungle, at some points approaching a small river, at others stretching aw ay from it into the jungle. In one place a bend of the canal forms, with the river, an inclosure in the shape of a horseshoe, containing about fifteen acres of wooded ground. ”To this place elephants resort during the monsoon, crossing the canal at three or four points where the banks have become trodden down by constant use. In order to trap the entire herd two lines of chains were stretched across the river at the ends of the horseshoe, and a trench was dug on the Tiver bank to cut off escape.on that side. The elephants having crossed into the inclosure the fords were barricaded with cocoa-nut trees, the canal deepened at those places, and two deep trenches cut from the canal to the river. Fires were kept up at night on the banks of the canal. Meanwhile a deep, circular trench was dug, inclosing about an acre Of ground, and two parallel trenches were also dug; Heading from the horseshoe to this small inclosure. Dropgates were made to prevent the animals leaying this keddah w hen once they had entered it A large force of men were now directed to drive the herd into the keddah. The

first attempt failed, the elephants stampeding back into the horseshoe after a few of them had entered the incloEure. A second effort was crowned with success. First came a female, with her calf; then seven other females, and after a while on came the entire herd, with a rush, males, females and calves of all sizes, “ like a herd of rather large pigs, jostling and pushing one another through the gateway." When the last was in, down went the gate and they were all secured. The catching of the elephants one by one was the work of several days. “ The men ride in among them on tame beasts and put ropes round their legs and necks, after which the tame elephants drag them- out in spite of all resistance, and they are chained one by one to trees to be trained at leisure. They do not mind the tame elephants mixing with them at all, even with men on their backs, but they object strongly to the men on the ground, who have to put on the ropes. The clever way in which the tame elephants help is wonderful; they move close up to the wild ones and understand how to put their legs so as to shield the men from all kicks; they take hold of the wild ones’legs and trunks with their trunks, and are invaluable.”