sh, of hide, or other
peculiar features which promise to make them valuable in an economic
way. Others, especially the antelopes, have a beauty of form and a grace
of movement which render them among the most attractive creatures of
their class. Even the hippopotamus, one of the grossest beasts of this
realm, affords in its teeth a valuable ivory, and its hides, if supplied
in sufficient quantity, would probably find a considerable use. It is
evident that in this "dark continent," where the influences which make
for human advancement have been so slight, we have the best field for
the selection of species that may hereafter be brought to the use of
man. There is evidently danger, in the advance in the civilizing
process, that the native forms which, owing to their fitness to the
physical conditions of the country, might be made useful to its people,
may be utterly destroyed by hunters.

Perhaps the most interesting of the tropical beasts from the point of
view which we occupy is the elephant: This animal in its relations to
men is eminently peculiar, in that while it has been in an individual
way long and completely subjugated, it has never been systematically
reared in captivity. Owing, it may be, to the slow growth of these
great beasts, as well as to the immediate manner in which they submit
to their captors, it has ever been the custom to take them when adult
from the wilderness. The result is that the supply of the Asiatic
species, which alone is serviceable--the African form being apparently
too fierce for use--is now dependent on a relatively small number of
wild herds. Certain of these herds are protected by the governments of
India, but it seems as if the species were already dangerously near
the vanishing point--in a position where the invasion of some disease
or some insect enemy might deprive the world of what is, all things
considered, the most interesting of the brutes. Moreover, the failure
to rear elephants in captivity has made it impossible to essay any of
those experiments in breeding which have done so much to improve the
utility and the beauty of most subjugated forms.

If the elephants could be reared in captivity there is little reason
to doubt that with a few centuries of selection they might be made to
vary in many important ways. It is evident that the form and mental
quality of these creatures is as plastic as those features in the
other domesticated animals have been proved to be. Moreover,