first
thought seem to be entirely insufficient to keep off so powerful a
creature, but the fact is that a wild elephant in Ceylon is so wary
that he will not trespass upon land thus guarded. Some instinct
teaches him to avoid the place and to seek for food elsewhere. A
simple rope drawn about a field, it is said, will keep him at a
distance. He shrewdly suspects a trap, and has seen so many of his
comrades seized upon and carried away into captivity by means of
corrals, traps, and ropes, that he has learned to associate the idea
of capture with such things, and is constantly on the lookout lest he
also fall a victim to the stratagems of the huntsmen. It is common to
consider one hundred years as the average period of an elephant's
life, but the author has seen an animal doing service in India which
was known to exceed this limit by a score of years.

European sportsmen, attracted to Ceylon in search of this big game,
sacrificed the elephants in mere wantonness until government
interfered, and a heavy fine is now imposed upon any one who kills an
animal of this species. There is no danger of the natives doing
anything of the kind. In the first place they have not the
inclination, and in the next they are not permitted to own firearms of
any sort. Some rich and reckless Englishmen, nevertheless, kill an
occasional elephant simply for the sake of boasting of their prowess,
and pay the government fine accordingly. We say the natives have no
inclination to hunt the elephant, but the wild Veddahs do sometimes
kill them. The animals of this species found in Ceylon are of a
distinctive breed, with some marked differences from those native to
Africa, and are noted for their high degree of intelligence. They are
most prized in India, where they are used by those who can afford to
keep them. The intelligence of this monarch of the forest is shown in
his selection of the most available paths for passing from one part of
the country to another. Major Skinner, the famous road-builder of
Ceylon, tells us how invaluable he found the tracks of the elephants
as a guide in laying out his government routes through the island. He
says the most available crossings of hills, valleys, and rivers were
already distinctly marked by elephant paths, and he followed them with
entire confidence that his engineers could do no better for him, with
all their experience, aided by the most accurate instruments.

The Maharajah of Jeypoor, India, whose ge