Animal products; . equently indis-pensable auxiliary. He will roll over large stones, place them inposition as directed, arrange them in twos with the skill of a mason,or level a beam with the eye of a builder. In matters of merebrute strength they find him almost equally useful. They havelarge waggons made expressly for him. When suitably harnessedhe is made to draw immense loads. The cut on the next pagerepresents an elephant at work in a timber yard at Moulmein. Elephants exist in large troops in the forests of Siam, and arecaught by the aid of domesticated females, who entice them intoambu
Animal products; . equently indis-pensable auxiliary. He will roll over large stones, place them inposition as directed, arrange them in twos with the skill of a mason,or level a beam with the eye of a builder. In matters of merebrute strength they find him almost equally useful. They havelarge waggons made expressly for him. When suitably harnessedhe is made to draw immense loads. The cut on the next pagerepresents an elephant at work in a timber yard at Moulmein. Elephants exist in large troops in the forests of Siam, and arecaught by the aid of domesticated females, who entice them intoambushes or snares prepared beforehand. They are soon tamed,and when domesticated render great services to their ivory of Siam is much sought after for its quality and its 333 ASIATIC ELEPHANTS. density, being considered superior to that obtained from parts ofIndia. A fine tusk of a Siamese elephant was shown at theLondon Exhibition of 1851 that weighed 100 lbs., the ivory ofwhich was very white and INDIAN ELEPHANT EMPLOYED IN A TIMBER YARD, MOULMEIN. In some Notes on Northern Cachar, by Lieut. R. Stewart ina number of the Bengal Asiatic Society some information is givenas to the capture of elephants by the natives :— Elephants are slain in great numbers by the Kookieswherever they are to be had, not only the tusks but the fleshbeing highly prized. Parties of twenty and upwards go out inpursuit of them at a time. When some recent elephant track is INDIAN IVORY. 339 discovered in the forest, two or three of the party ascend someconvenient tree, whose branches overhang the track, the re-mainder follow it up, and having got on the other side of theherd, scare it towards the ambush by shouting, beating gongs, anddischarging fire-arms. Here, while passing, the animals areassailed from above with long spears having huge iron barscovered with deadly poison; every wound inflicted results in thedeath of the animal at not more than half a mile from the spoton which he
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