Nothing Is More Difficult Than To Induce A Tame Elephant To Cross
A Bridge Which His Sagacity Assures Him Is Insecure; He Will
Sound It With His Trunk And Press Upon It With One Foot, But He
Will Not Trust His Weight If He Can Perceive The Slightest
Vibration.
Their power of determining whether bogs or the mud at the bottom
of tanks are deep or shallow is beyond my comprehension.
Although I have seen elephants in nearly every position, I have
never seen one inextricably fixed in a swamp. This is the more
extraordinary as their habits induce them to frequent the most
extensive morasses, deep lakes, muddy tanks and estuaries, and
yet I have never seen even a young one get into a scrape by being
overwhelmed. There appears to be a natural instinct which warns
them in their choice of ground, the same as that which influences
the buffalo, and in like manner guides him through his swampy
haunts.
It is a grand sight to see a large herd of elephants feeding in a
fine lake in broad daylight. This is seldom witnessed in these
days, as the number of guns have so disturbed the elephants in
Ceylon that they rarely come out to drink until late in the
evening or during the night; but some time ago I had a fine view
of a grand herd in a lake in the middle of the day.
I was out shooting with a great friend of mine, who is a
brother-in-arms against the game of Ceylon, and than whom a
better sportsman does not breathe, and we had arrived at a wild
and miserable place while en route home after a jungle trip.
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