Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 January 1879 — Elephant Herds. [ARTICLE]

Elephant Herds.

Herds of elephants usually consist of from thirty to fifty individuals, but much larger numbers, even one hundred, are by po means uncommon. When large herds are in localities where fodder is not very plentiful, they divide into parties of from ten to twenty; these remain separate, though within two or three miles of each other. But they all take part in auy common movement, such as a march in another tract of forest. The different parties keep themselves informed at all times of each other’s whereabouts, chiefly by their tine sense of smell. I have observed that tame elephants can scent wild ones at a distance of three miles when the wind is favorable. Each herd of elephants is a family in which the animals are nearly allied to each other. Though the different herds do not intermix, escaped tame female elephants, or young males, appear to find no difficulty in obtaining admittance to herds. In a herd of elephants the females with their calves form .the advanced guard, while the tuskers follow leisurely behind, as the unencumbered tusk-' era have no one to see to but themselves. 1 have never known a case of a tusker undertaking to cover the retreat of a herd. A herd is invariably led by a female —never a male—and the females with young ones are at all times dangerous if intruded upon. The necessity for the convenience of the mothers of the herd regulating its movement is evident, as they must accommodate the length and time of their marches, and the localities in which they rest or feed at different hours, to the requirements of their young ones; consequently the guidance of a tusker would not suit them.

Elephants make use cf a great variety of sounds in communicating with each other, and in expressing their wants aud feelings. Some are uttered by the trunk, some by the throat. The conjunctures in which either means of expression is employed cannot be strictly classified—as fear, pleasure, want and other emotions are sometimes indicated by the trunk, sometimes by the throat. An elephant rushing upon an assailant trumpets shrilly with fury; but if enraged by wounds or other causes, and brooding by itself, it expresses its anger by a continued hoarse grumbling from the throat. Fear is similarly expressed by a shrill, brassy trumpet, or by a roar from the lungs; pleasure by a continued low squeaking through the trunk, or an almost inaudible purring sound from the throat. Want—as a calf calling its mother—is chiefly expressed by the throat. A peculiar sound is made use of by elephants to express dislike or apprehension, and at the same time to intimidate, as when the cause of alarm has

not been clearly ascertained, and the animals wish to deter an intruder. It is produced by rapping the end of the trunk smartly on the ground, a current of air, hitherto retained, being sharply emitted through the trunk, as from a valve, at the moment of impact. The sound made resembles that of a large sheet of tin rapidly doubled. While in open country the herds move about a good deal during the day in cloudy, showery weather. On very stormy and inclement days they keep to bamboo cover, which is close and

warm. During breaks, when the sun shines for a few hours, they come out eagerly to warm their huge bodies. They are then fond of standing on the sheet-rock so common in the Mysore country above hill ranges. The young calves and staid mothers, in small groups, half dozing as they bask, form tranquil family pictures at such times. Elephants are partial to rocky places -afraH-seasons; —~■ —~ —■ While marching from one track of forest to another, elephants travel in strict Indian file. They seldom stay more than one or two days at the same halting-place, as the fodder becomes exhausted. They rest during the middle hours of the night, as well as during the day. Some lie down, and they usually dispose themselves in small, distinct squads of animals which seem to have an affection for each other. (Tame elephants frequently display a particular liking for one or other of their fellows.) About three o’clock they rise to feed or march, and by ten o’clock in the day they are again collected, and rest till afternoon; at eleven at night they again rest. In showery cool weather elephants are frequently on the move all day long. When a calf is born, the herd remains with its mother two days; the calf is then capable of marching. Even at this tender age calves are no encumbrance to the nerd’s movement; the youngestclimb and cross rivers, assisted by their * dams. In swimming, veiy young calves are supported by their mothers’ trunks, and held in front of them. When they are a few months old they scramble onto their mother’s shoulders, helping themselves by holding on with their legs, or they swim alone. Young calves sent across rivers in charge of our tame elephants often did this, though they could swim by themselves if necessary. Full-grown elephants swim perhaps better man any other land animals. A batch of seventy-nine that I dispatched from Dacca to Barraokpur, near Calcutta, in November, 1875, had the Ganges and several of its large tidal branches to cross. In the longest swim they were six hours without touching the bottom; after a rest in a sand-bank they completed the swim in three more; hot one was lost. I have heard of more remarkable swims than this.— G. P. Sanderson's “ Thirteen Years Among the Wild Beasts of India."

“Ah, by George!” groaned young Mr. Lethered n pinking wearily into an office-chair, “ ah, by George! my head aches fearfully.” —“Possible?” asked his employer, old 'Mr. Hardfax, with a look of curious interest and sympathy. “Possible? Something must have got into it.” And then for a long time nobody said anything, and the room seemed to grow about fifteen degrees colder.— lfawk- Bye. He was a countryman, and he walked along our busy thoroughfare and read a sign over the door of a manufacturing establishment, “ Cast-Iron Sinks.” It made him mad. He said that any fool ought to knoW that. —Camden (Jv.. J.) Post. “Remember, now,” said abride -at the altar, “we have separated and been remarried four' times, and about once more will, convince me that we can never live bappttytogether.” ' J