cts the ridge of a
chain, and takes the shortest path to the nearest safe ford. They are
generally found in herds of about twenty each, which are evidently
distinct families; and though they may mingle with other herds at times
when they meet to drink at the same tanks or water-courses, they
invariably unite together again at the slightest alarm. Elephants
become rogues from various causes; chiefly when they have been separated
from the herd, and, from living a life of bachelor solitude, become
morose and vicious. They at length generally resort to the
neighbourhood of human habitations, where they commit serious
depredations on the rice grounds and among the cocoanut plantations.
Sometimes they will approach a dwelling, and travellers are frequently
attacked and even killed by them. The natives, therefore, give every
encouragement to European sportsmen who will undertake to destroy them;
and in this case they really can be of very great service. Nowell and
I, on hearing this account of the rogues, agreed that the first we heard
of we would undertake to attack, and we quite longed for an opportunity
of exerting our powers in so useful an undertaking.

No one seemed able to account for the reason why elephants are so much
afraid of wands or spears. They will not even, unless driven by terror,
attempt to pass through the slightest reed fence but a few feet in
height. Thus a single watcher is able to keep them off the rice and
coracan lands; and in some places, where these intervene between their
haunts and the tanks where they are accustomed to drink, passages are
made, lined by bamboo fences, and they pass up and down them without
attempting to break into the fields, though full of their favourite
food. Their instinct tells them exactly when the products of the ground
in which they most delight are ripe, and they regularly make their
appearance in that part of the country where they are to be found. Now,
curiously enough, as soon as the rice and coracan are removed and the
fences are broken, the elephants walk into the fields and regularly
glean them. When this is done they move on to some other district. In
the same way they visit those parts of the country where the palmyra
palm flourishes, at the time the fruit from its ripeness is about to
fall to the ground. Some are said to be very inquisitive, and will not
only examine any structure which has been put up in the locality they
frequent, but rogues especi