Mr. G. P. Sanderson says: What possible claim can the lion, or in India the tiger, lay to the royal title? Is the elephant not as infinitely their superior in every good quality of mind as he is in physical strength? Let them enter the lists against him; at one spurn from the foot of their suzerain, behold the claimants fyingthrough the air with half the bones in their bodies broken!"
Mr. Sanderson continues by quoting Sir Samuel Baker as 503 "The king of beasts is generally acknowledged to be the lion; but' no one who has seen a wild elephant can doubt fora moment that the title belongs to him in his own right. Lord of all created animals in might and sagacity, the elephant roams through his native forests. He browses upon the lofty branches, upturns young trees, and from plain to forest he stalks majestically at break of day monarch of all he surveys."
I differ as to the assertion that the lion is inferior "in every good quality of mind." I do not think there is any attribute superior to that of courage, and in this particular the lion does not hold a subordinate rank. However if we turn from the standpoint of Kingship and look at the subject from that of utilitarianism the evidences are in favour of the longest of all quad-rupees. Mr. George P. Sanderson during his various elephant-catching experiences had th the rapture of securing the valuable prize of fifty-three wild ones at the close of a single expedition. The elephant's gigantic strength instead of being wasted in the wilds was turned to the profit of mankind in various ways by the British and Native Governments as in their Engineering and and Forest departments. At times I have been curious to know how many horse-wer these noble animals were saving as was witnessing them as, taking the rope between their molar teeth and passing it over one of their tusks, (thereby obtaining a good purchase), they commenced removing small fallen trees, or dragging out of the jungle heavy pieces of newly felled timber.
Need I continue by mentioning how valuable the tusks prove to the cutler, turner, carver, miniature painter, and others, as they become extensively used for purposes such as the followin, for the handles of pocket, table, and paper knives, also walking sticks and umbrellas, for piano keys, combs, billiard balls, ladies' fans, measuring rules, mathematical scales, chess and draughts-men, statuettes, relievo plaques, caskets, purposes of inlaying, useful as a valuable black pigment when ground up and mixed with appropriate media, and as an ingredient in the fine printing ink used in engravings and etchings, ete., ete. The foregoing considerations ought to deter any one from indiscriminate shooting.
In the Native State of Travancore a law had been passed prohibiting the killing of elephants; the result was that, at the close of a decade or two, their simple multiplication was followed by the continued, and increasingly so, subtraction of the livelihood of poor villagers and tribes. For these huge beasts paid periodic cal visits to the rice and other grain fields, banana plantations, etc., augmenting their own already spacious "equatorial dimensions," and lessening the already depreciated ones of the submerged tenth."
Furthermore, the losses inflicted on the poor agriculturists by the mere tramplings of the elephants' feet were far from being inconsiderable. On one occasion half a dozen of these ro vii gp beasts cis ly wrecked an entire model village of the hill Aryans, consisting of about fifteen bamboo houses, corresponding measures had been taken by levelling each one to the ground! If
the Rajah for the reduction of the elephants by capture the prolonged interdiction would not have proved detrimental either to the properties of the poorer classes or those of the well-to-do planters.
However we had a standing Jaw on our estate which may be said to have commenced: "We don't want to shoot (fight), but by Nimrod (Jingo) if we do," etc. Thus it came to pass upon a certain day, about six years ago, as my brother was about to attend to the roll-call, some of the labourers ran up stating that several wild elephants had paid a nocturnal visit and had committed damage to the coffee trees and plantains. We did not take long to cast resh bullets, hardened with quicksilver, and otherwise attend to our battery. An extra hearty meal being over we started at eleven o'clock and in twenty minutes came upon the trail.
We carried the tracks through acres of coffee, smal] open forests, bamboo coverts, and grass ten feet high till about four o'clock, when we called a halt being somewhat disappointed in not being able to solve the trail puzzle, for it crossed and recrossed, went in centrical and concentrical directions. I became somewhat fagged out and looking up at the bungalow was thinking of dinner when my elder brother pointed to another track and said: " Lets follow up this one for another half an hour before giving in." Perseverance was speedily rewarded for within a quarter of an hour we were relieved of all further trouble as to tracking by the depredators blowing through eir trunks thus causing sounds resembling
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.