. The popular natural history . Zoology. THE TAPIR. 20? The inink and the skin around the eye are also enumerated as delicacies, but have been compared by one who has had practical experience as bearing a close resemblance to shoe-leather both in toughness and evil flavour. The natives employ many methods of capturing Elephants, the pitfall being the most deadly. Even this insidious snare is often rendered useless by the sagacity of the crafty old leaders of the herds, who precede their little troops to the water, as they advance by night to drink, and carefully beating the ground with their t
. The popular natural history . Zoology. THE TAPIR. 20? The inink and the skin around the eye are also enumerated as delicacies, but have been compared by one who has had practical experience as bearing a close resemblance to shoe-leather both in toughness and evil flavour. The natives employ many methods of capturing Elephants, the pitfall being the most deadly. Even this insidious snare is often rendered useless by the sagacity of the crafty old leaders of the herds, who precede their little troops to the water, as they advance by night to drink, and carefully beating the ground with their trunks as they proceed, unmask the pitfalls that have been dug in their course. They then tear away the covers of the pits and render them harmless. These pits are terrible affairs when an animal gets into them, for a sharp stake is set perpendicularly at the bottom, so that the poor Elephant is transfixed by its own weight, and dies miserably. Each pit is about eight feet long by four in width. The ivory of the African Elephant is extremely valuable, and vast quantities are imported annually into this country. The slaughter of an Elephant is therefore a matter of congratulation to the white hunter, who knows that he can obtain a good price for the tusks and teeth of the animal which he has slain. A pair of tusks weighing about a hundred and fifty pounds will fetch nearly forty pounds when sold, so that the produce of a successful chase is extremely valuable. One officer contrived to purchase every step in the army by the sale of the ivory which he had thus obtained. On an average, each pair of tusks, taking the small with the great, will weigh about a hundred and twenty pounds. One of the links which unite the elephants to the swine and rhinoceros is to be found in the genus Tapi7-us. The animals which belong to this genus are remarkable for the prolonged upper lip, which is formed into a kind of small proboscis, not unlike that of the elephant, but upon a smaller scale, and de
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectzoology, bookyear1884
