cutors. They pull up the trees, probably, because they want to browse on their soft roots, and they demolish the agricultural implements merely because they happen to be in their way. But what I am now about to state assuredly indicates no ordinary intelligence. A few days before my arri val at Enon, a troop of elephants came down one dark and rainy night, close to the outskirts of the village. The missionaries heard them bellowing and making an extraordinary noise for a long time at the upper end of their orchard; but knowing well how dangerous it is to encounter these powerful animals in the night, they kept close within their houses till daylight. Next morning, on their examining the spot where they had heard the elephants, they discovered the cause of all this nocturnal uproar. There was at this spot a ditch or trench, about four or five feet in width, and nearly fourteen feet in depth, which the industrious missionaries had recently cut through the bank of the river, on purpose to lead out the water to irrigate some part of their garden ground, and to drive a cornmill. Into this trench, which was still unfinished and without water, one of the elephants had evidently fallen, for the marks of his feet were distinctly visible at the bottom, as well as the impress of his huge body on its sides. How he had got into it was easy to conjecture; but how, being once in, he had ever contrived to get out again, was the marvel. By his own unaided efforts it was obviously impossible for such an animal to have extricated himself. Could his comrades, then, have assisted him? There can be no question that they had; though by what means, unless by hauling him out with K

their trunks, it would not be easy to conjecture. And in corroboration of this supposition, on examining the spot myself, I found the edges of this trench deeply indented with numerous vestiges, as if the other elephants had stationed themselves on either side, some of them kneeling and others on their feet, and had thus, by united efforts, and probably after many failures, hoisted their unlucky brother out of the pit."

However unfrequent may be such instances of intelligent compassion among elephants, it is undoubted that the sagacity of the animal enables him to perceive that he may escape from the perilous confinement of a deep pit if he is supplied with the means of raising his enormous body near. ly to the surface of the ground. A very curious anecdote, which not only illustrates this instinctive knowledge, but exemplifies the general exercise of the mental power of the "half-reasoning" animal, is given in a recent work on zoology.*

"At the siege of Bhurtpore in the year 1805, an affair occurred between two elephants which displays at once the character and mental capability, the passions, cunning, and resources of these curious animals. The British army, with its countless host of followers and attendants, and thousands of cattle, had been for a long time before the city, when, on the approach of the hot season and of the dry hot winds, the supply of water in the neighbourhood of the camps necessary for the supply of so many beings began to fail; the ponds or tanks had dried up, and no more water was left than the im. mense wells of the country would furnish. The * Cuvier's Animal Kingdom, by Griffiths, vol. iii., p. 376.

multitude of men and cattle that were unceasingly at the wells, particularly the largest, occasioned no little struggle for the priority in procuring the supply for which each were there to seek, and the consequent confusion on the spot was frequently very considerable. On one occasion, two elephant drivers, each with his elephant, the one remarkably large and strong, and the other comparatively small and weak, were at the well together; the small elephant had been provided by his master with a bucket for the occasion, which he carried at the end of his proboscis; but the larger animal, being des. titute of this necessary vessel, either spontaneously or by desire of his keeper, seized the bucket, and easily wrested it away from his less powerful fellow-servant: the latter was too sensible of his inferiority openly to resent the insult, though it is obvious that he felt it; but great squabbling and abuse ensued between the keepers. At length, the weaker animal, watching the opportunity when the other was standing with his side to the well, retired backward a few paces in a very quiet, unsuspicious manner, and then rushing forward with all his might, drove his head against the side of the other, and fairly pushed him into the well.

"It may easily be imagined that great inconvenience was immediately experienced, and serious apprehensions quickly followed, that the water in the well, on which the existence of so many seemed in a great measure to depend, would be spoiled, or, at least, injured by the unwieldy brute which was precipitated into it; and as the surface of the water was nearly twenty feet below the common level, there did not appear to be any means that

could be adopted to get the animal out by main force, at least without injuring him: there were many feet of water below the elephant, who floated with ease on its surface, and, experiencing considerable pleasure from his cool retreat, evinced but little inclination even to exert what means he might possess in himself of escape.

"A vast number of fascines had been employed by the army in conducting the siege, and at length it occurred to the elephant keeper that a sufficient number of these (which may be compared to bundles of wood) might be lowered into the well to make a pile, which might be raised to the top, if the animal could be instructed as to the necessary means of laying them in regular succession under his feet. Permission having been obtained from the engineer officers to use the fascines, which were at the time put away in several piles of very considerable height, the keeper had to teach the elephant the lesson, which, by means of that extraordinary ascendency these men attain over the elephants, joined with the intellectual resources of the animal itself, he was soon enabled to do, and the elephant began quickly to place each fascine, as it was lowered to him, successively under him, until, in a little time, he was enabled to stand upon them; by this time, however, the cunning brute, enjoying the pleasure of his situation after the heat and partial privation of water to which he had been lately exposed (they are observed in their natural state to frequent rivers, and to swim very often), was unwilling to work any longer, and all the threats of his keeper could not induce him to place another fascine. The man then opposed cunning to cun

ning, and began to caress and praise the elephant, and what he could not effect by threats he was enabled to do by the repeated promise of plenty of rack. Incited by this, the animal again went to work, raised himself considerably higher, until, by a partial removal of the masonry round the top of the well, he was enabled to step out: the whole affair occupied about fourteen hours."

In Nepaul, and in the countries bordering on the northern frontiers of India, where the elephants are of a small size, they are often captured by the natives with a phaun or slip-knot. This practice has some analogy with the custom of taking horses with the lasso in the Pampas. The hunter, seated on a docile elephant, round whose body the cord is fastened, singles out one from the wild herd; and, cautiously approaching, throws his pliable rope in such a manner that it rests behind the ears and over the brows of the animal pursued. He instinctively curls up his trunk, making an effort to remove the rope; which, with great adroitness on the part of the hunter, is then passed forward over the neck. Another hunter next comes up, who repeats the process; and thus the creature is held by the two tame elephants, to whom the phauns are attached, till his strength is exhausted. It would appear quite impossible to take a large elephant in this manner; although, with those of a peculiarly small breed, the operation does not appear more difficult than that of securing the wild horse or the buffalo in the plains of South America.*

It is remarkable, that in every mode of captu ring the wild elephant, man avails himself of the * See Williamson's Sports, p. 39,