50 THE AFRICAN ELEPHANT. moderated, and his intellectual powers developed by tuition, we find him elevated to the highest degree of perfection his nature can sustain; and in return he renders all his endowments subservient to the wants and luxuries of his master. But in the history of the elephant of Africa the scene is sadly reversed. In the wild regions which he traverses we find that in his relations to mankind, mutual fear and deadly enmity usurp the place of services and benefactions. How often in the records of African travellers is the following picture presented! A tribe of Africans of a mild and unwarlike disposition cultivate a fertile spot on the banks of some large stream, and subsist on the produce of their rice grounds, fields of maize, and plantations of sugar-cane. The time of harvest having arrived, they rejoice at the ample store of nutriment provided for their subsistence during the unproductive months. In a single night the hopes of a season are blighted. With rushing noise and the earth trembling beneath their tread, a herd of wild and hungry elephants come suddenly upon the devoted settlement, attracted by the ripened vegetables. The poor negroes, surprised in sleep, and destitute of fire-arms, in vain attempt to oppose the progress of these formidable invaders. Their simple huts are overturned; and such as are unable to escape are beaten down with an irresistible blow of the proboscis, trodden under foot, or gored to death. The morning displays to the survivors the spot which had been occupied by their plantations converted into a wilderness and swamp; for the elephants tread down and destroy more than they consume. famine succeeds, and pestilence its usual concomitant; and the wretched remnant of the tribe are driven to the alternative of perishing through hunger, or of selling themselves as slaves to a more fortunate tribe. A But for occasional ravages of this description man takes ample vengeance, by the unceasing warfare waged against the offenders for the sake of their tusks. All the methods of capture practised against the elephant of Africa have his destruction for their end, his utility being confined to the ivory he furnishes for commerce; for the tusks of this species are very large, and of equal size both in the male and female. We are informed by Lander that the negroes inhabiting the banks of the Niger employ a very simple stratagem to insure the destruction of their ponderous and dreaded neighbour. In one of the beaten tracks by which the elephants pass down from the forests to bathe in the stream, a lance is fixed in the ground, pointing towards the part from which they issue: this being concealed by brushwood, pene THE AFRICAN ELEPHANT. 51 trates the abdomen of the foremost elephant, who feeling the smart, instead of retreating backwards blindly rushes on with augmented speed, and thus is mortally wounded. In the neighbourhood of the Cape, and in other parts of the coast of Africa, where commercial settlements are situated, and fire-arms have been introduced, those weapons are commonly employed. This method of destruction requires great courage, patience, and capability of bearing fatigue, and is attended with considerable personal risk to the hunters. A third method, which requires still more address, consists in enticing the elephant to pursue a mounted hunter on the open plain, while the huge pursuer is ham-stringed by a sabre cut inflicted by another hunter behind him. One might infer from the previous summary of the present condition of the African elephant, as relates to man, that his disposition was naturally vicious, and rendered him incapable of domestication. But there is no real ground for such a conclusion. Were the Africans raised to the same degree of civilization as the Asiatics, there seems little doubt but that their species of elephant might be made equally useful in a state of servitude; for the specimen now living in the French national menagerie has not shown less intelligence than the Asiatic elephant. It has learnt the same tricks, and has performed the same motions and exercises, under the same circumstances, and in the same period of time. It is as affectionate to those who feed him, and as obedient to their commands. The Carthaginians, moreover, employed elephants for all the purposes that they have served in other parts of the civilized world; and they must have derived their supply from the species under consideration. Cuvier gives the following concise account of the ancient history of the elephant. "Homer speaks frequently of ivory, but knew not the animal whence it was derived. The first of the Greeks who saw the elephant were Alexander and his soldiers, when they fought with Porus; and they must have observed them well, for Aristotle gives a complete history of this animal, and much truer in its details than those of our moderns. After the death of Alexander, Antigonus possessed the greatest number of elephants. Pyrrhus first brought them into Italy 472 years after the foundation of Rome: they were disembarked at Tarentum. The Romans to whom these animals were entirely strange, gave them the name of Leucanian Bulls. Curius Dentatus, who captured four of these animals from Pyrrhus, brought them to Rome for the ceremony of his triumph. These were the first which were there exhibited, but after 52 SALMON FISHING BY A DOG. wards they became in some measure common. Metellus having vanquished the Carthaginians in Sicily, conducted their elephants to Rome on rafts, to the number of a hundred and twenty according to Seneca, of a hundred and forty-two according to Pliny. Claudius Pulcher had combats of the elephant in the circus in 655; and similar combats, either of elephant against elephant, of the elephant against the rhinoceros, the bull, or the gladiator, were exhibited by Lucullus, Pompey, Cæsar, Claudius, and Nero. Pompey harnessed them to his car during his triumph for Africa. Germanicus exhibited some which danced in a rude fashion. In the reign of Nero they were seen to dance on a rope, carrying at the same time a Roman knight. One may read in Ælian the extraordinary feats they were brought to execute. It is true they were trained to them from their earliest age, and Ælian says even, expressly, that these dancing elephants were brought forth at Rome. This assertion, with the confirmation it has received in our own day from the experiments of Mr. Corse, leads us to hope it will be possible to multiply this useful animal in a state of domestication." SALMON-FISHING BY A DOG. "Now that I am got upon the subject of fishing, let me tell you of an amusing instance of sagacity which I had an opportunity of seeing a short time ago, in a water-dog of this country, who had become a most excellent fisher. In riding from Portrush to the Giant's Causeway with some company, we had occasion to ford the river Bush, near the sea; and as the fishermen were going to haul their net, we stopped to see their success. As soon as the dog perceived the men to move, he instantly ran down the river, of his own accord, and took post in the middle of it, on some shallows, where he could occasionally run or swim, and in this position he placed himself with all the eagerness and attention so strongly observable in a pointer dog who sets his game. We were for some time at a loss to apprehend his scheme, but the event soon satisfied us, and amply justified the prudence of the animal; for the fish, when they feel the net, always endeavour to make directly out to sea. Accordingly, one of the salmon, escaping from the net, rushed down the stream with great velocity toward the ford, where the dog stood ready to receive him at an advantage. A very diverting chase now commenced, in which, from the shallowness of the water, we could discern the whole track of the fish, with all its rapid turnings and FASCINATING POWER OF SERPENTS. 53 windings. After a smart pursuit, the dog found himself left considerably behind, in consequence of the water deepening, by which he had been reduced to the necessity of swimming. But instead of following this desperate game any longer, he readily gave it over, and ran with all his speed directly down the river, till he was sure of being again to seaward of the salmon, where he took post as before in his pointer's attitude. Here the fish a second time met him, and a fresh pursuit ensued; in which, after various attempts, the salmon at last made its way out to sea, notwithstanding all the ingenious and vigorous exertions of its pursuer. "Though the dog did not succeed at this time, yet I was informed that it was no unusual thing for him to run down his game; and the fishermen assured me that he was of very great advantage to them, by turning the salmon toward the net."-Hamilton's Letters on the Coast of Antrim, 1790. ON THE FASCINATING POWER OF SERPENTS. THE folllowing is an abstract of a paper by Dr. Barton, which appeared in the American Philosophical Transactions. Every one is acquainted with the power ascribed to the rattle-snakes and other American serpents, of fascinating birds and small animals, such as the squirrel, and of depriving them of the power of escaping their magic influence; and which thus enables them to capture animals that otherwise would seem to have been placed entirely out of their reach. The unhappy animal is described as running up and down the tree, always going down more than it goes up, till at length it is drawn nearer to the snake, whose mouth is open to receive its victim. The poor little animal runs into the snake's jaws, uttering a piteous cry, and is immediately swallowed. This is the manner in which this fascinating power is exerted, as related by different authors. And this story has been repeated by naturalists in their histories of serpents. They seem credulously to have believed the accounts they received, and to have taken them for granted without sufficient examination. Linnæus says that this power was given to the rattle-snake as a compensation to it for the slowness of its motion. He seems to have received this tale from some of his pupils, and does not assert that he was ever the eye-witness of the fact. The existence of this power would be readily believed in by the uninformed, who always give credence to any tale of wonder. Where this belief originated, is unknown. Perhaps some 54 FASCINATING POWER OF SERPENTS. traces of it may be discovered in the mythology of Asia and Africa. Some have referred it to the American Indians; while others, who have travelled amongst them, never heard any mention of the circumstance, although they heard them praise the ingenuity of these reptiles in catching birds, squirrels, &c. M. de la Cepede, in his Histoire Naturelle des Serpens, has paid great attention to this subject; and he offers two suppositions for the explanation of this miraculous power. One is, that the pestiferous breath of the snake agitates the animal which it means to devour, and prevents its escape. Many persons assert that they never knew any disagreeable smell to proceed from these animals, even after they had been some time shut up in a box; while others say that a very offensive stench is continually arising from the body of the rattle-snake. Some have ascribed the motions of the birds that are introduced into the cages of these animals to the effect of their breath; but they were probably caused by fear. The rattle-snake has been known to continue for days coiled round a tree, in which the thrush or cat-bird were rearing their young, which, upon this supposition, must have perished. The other supposition is that these animals have been slightly bitten. But their actions are totally different from those observed in animals bitten by a rattle-snake; besides that the agitation of the bird has ceased on the death of the snake. Nor is this power of fascination ascribed exclusively to the venomous serpents; for almost every species is supposed to be endued with it. Blumenbach ascribes it to the rattle on the tail of the rattle-snake; but this has been observed to be perfectly quiet at the time when the supposed charm is working and this explanation cannot apply to the other snakes. Hence it appears that none of these explanations are satisfactory. If we examine the species of birds that are generally observed to be enchanted, and the season when it takes place, we may perhaps arrive at a more probable solution of the problem. Those birds that are led by instinct to build their nests on the ground, or on trees near the ground, have most frequently been observed to be under the enchanting influence of the rattle-snake; for it is well known that each kind of bird builds its nest in the same situation, at least in any one particular country. Upon inquiry concerning the time of the year when any bird had been seen under this influence, it was found, in almost every instance, to be that at which it was either laying its eggs or rearing its young. From these considerations it appeared probable that the cries and fears of |