heir course.... I have rode
through forests where the trees thus broken lay so thick across one
another, that it was almost impossible to ride through the
district."--_Ibid_., p. 310.

Mr. Gordon Cumming does not name the trees which he saw thus "uprooted"
and "broken across," nor has he given any idea of their size and weight;
but Major DENHAM, who observed like traces of the elephant in Africa,
saw only small trees overthrown by them; and Mr. PRINGLE, who had an
opportunity of observing similar practices of the animals in the neutral
territory of the Eastern frontier of the Cape of Good Hope, describes
their ravages as being confined to the mimosas, "immense numbers of
which had been torn out of the ground, and placed in an inverted
position, in order to enable the animals to browse at their ease on the
soft and juicy roots, which form a favourite part of their food. Many of
the _larger mimosas had resisted all their efforts; and indeed, it is
only after heavy rain, when the soil is soft and loose, that they ever
successfully attempt this operation._"--Pringle's _Sketches of South
Africa._]

Of course much must depend on the nature of the timber and the moisture
of the soil; thus a strong tree on the verge of a swamp may be
overthrown with greater ease than a small and low one in parched and
solid ground. I have seen no "tree" deserving the name, nothing but
jungle and brushwood, thrown down by the mere movement of an elephant
without some special exertion of force. But he is by no means fond of
gratuitously tasking his strength; and food being so abundant that he
obtains it without an effort, it is not altogether apparent, even were
he able to do so, why he should assail "the largest trees in the
forest," and encumber his own haunts with their broken stems; especially
as there is scarcely anything which an elephant dislikes more than
venturing amongst fallen timber.

A tree of twelve inches in diameter resisted successfully the most
strenuous struggles of the largest elephant I ever saw led to it; and
when directed by their keepers to clear away jungle, the removal of even
a small tree, or a healthy young coco-nut palm, is a matter both of time
and exertion. Hence the services of an elephant are of much less value
in clearing a forest than in dragging and piling felled timber. But in
the latter occupation he manifests an intelligence and dexterity which
is surprising to a stranger, because the sameness of the oper