Elephants are caught in stockades or kraals. The
Government employs hunting parties of 350 natives trained to the
work, and more than 100 animals are sometimes secured in a single
drive.
New elephants are trained by first rubbing them down with bamboo
rods, and shouting at them, and by tying them with ropes; they are
taught to kneel by taking them into streams about five feet deep,
when the sun is hot, and prodding them on the back with sharp
sticks.
The total number of elephants maintained is eight hundred, of which
one half are used for military purposes. They consume about 400
pounds of green, or 250 pounds of dry fodder daily, and are also
given unhusked rice. An elephant is expected to carry about 1,200
pounds with ease. In the Abyssinian Expedition elephants travelled
many hundreds of miles, carrying from 1,500 to 1,800 pounds
(including their gear), but out of forty-four, five died from
exhaustion; they are capable of working from morning to night, or of
remaining under their loads for twenty hours at a stretch.
[Footnote: There is no "elephant gun-drill" laid down in the
Imperial Regulations, but when the gun goes into action the elephant
is made to kneel, and long "skids" are placed against the cradle
upon which the gun rests, so as to form an inclined plane to the
ground.
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