e
action of man. It is possible that the death was due to more natural
causes, such as the change of climate which attended the decline of
the Glacial period, or to the attacks of some insect enemy like the
tsetze fly of South Africa, which occasionally brings destruction to
cattle in that part of the world. On the whole, however, it seems
most probable that the extermination of this noble beast is to be
accounted among the brutal triumphs of mankind, perhaps as the first
of the long tale of destructions which he has inflicted upon his
fellow-creatures. However this may be, it is clear that at the dawn
of civilization the species of the genus elephas had become limited
to that part of the African continent which lies south of the Sahara,
and to the portion of Asia east of the Persian Gulf and south of
China. The remnant consisted of two species: the African form, on the
average the larger of the two, a fierce and scarcely domesticable
creature; and the Asiatic, a milder-natured species which alone has
been to any extent brought into the service of man.

It is not certain when or where elephants were first reduced to
domestication. In the dawn of history we find them used to enhance the
state of princes and for the purposes of war. It seems possible that
in this early day the African as well as the Asiatic species was
tamed, at least to the point where they could be made to serve in
battle. We can hardly believe that all these animals which were at the
command of Hannibal and the other generals of North Africa, came from
the Asiatic realm. The fact that in modern times the species which
dwells south of the Sahara has not been turned to the uses of man, may
be accounted for by the lowly estate of the native people in that part
of the world, and the lack of need for such creatures in the economic
conditions of the Aryan folk who have settled along the shores and in
the southern part of that continent.

The relations of man to the elephant are more peculiar than those which
he has formed with any other domesticated animal. Although the creature
will breed in captivity, its reproduction in that state is exceptional,
and it is many years before the offspring are fit for any service. It
is indeed about thirty years before the creature is sufficiently adult
to attain a good measure of strength and endurance. It has therefore
been the habit of the people who avail themselves of this admirable
beast to use the captures which th