I775* November. preparations o f thofe herbs which it has been remarked,: that the elephants principally chufe to feed on. According to the accounts o f authors, and to what I .could learn both from the Hottentots and colonifts, elephants have no fcrotum; but their young fucklings might probably, neverthelefs, undergo a certain operation, and thus might be domefticated to greater advantage than thofe that are now ufed in India; for by means of this operation, as well as by habit, they would infallibly-i>e lefs nice in their food, lefs riotous and unruly, more hardy, and not in the leaft fubjedt to the fury that fometimes feizes them in the rutting foafon. But-though food feems more.difficult to be got for .elephants in India, than it pqflibly could be at the Cape, yet I doubt whether it would be worth while for many private people in that colony to keep them ; hut it certainly would be very proper for government to endeavour to tame fome o f thefe animals, and ufo them ;in its fervice. In India an elepha'nt has an hundred pounds of rice-groats it daily, raw and boiled, and mixed up with butter and fugar; befides, this they give it arrack and pifang, (vid. Bu f f on., p. :43 ;), but as this animal in its favage fiate gets neither butter nor arrack, this, perhaps, is to the full as unneceffary as to have it ferved out of golden veffels, and be waited on by noblemen, as is done in Pegu. M. de Bu f f o n , p. 143, fuppofes the con- fumption of provifion by a wild elephant to amount to 150 pounds of grafs and roots daily ; and in the Memoires pour fervir a PHiJi. des Animaux we find, that in the lafi century, an elephant in the menagerie at Verfailles, was reckoned to be very fufficiently fed with 80 pounds of bread, bread, two buckets of foup, and twelve bottles o f wine No^” [;er every day. This elephant died in its 17th year, but would, perhaps, have lived longer, if it had not not been fed quite fo plentifully; as otherwife the age o f an elephant is reckoned 150, 200, and even 300 years, or more. Perhaps a young one brought up at the Gape, would be contented with diftiller’s waih, grains, cabbage, and other vegetables, together with parboiled barley, malt, or wheat. Wine being not very wholefome for them, might be very •well difpenfed w ith ; but as by promifing it liquors, this animal may be made to exert itfelf to a greater degree than ufual, it might not be amifs to give it a few bottles o f wine now and then. However, as wine in this colony is at a very low price, the expence with regard to this article is likewife tolerable: neverthelefs, it cannot be denied, but that even at the Cape it muft be difficult to find fo large an animal as this in provifion; but, on the other hand, it muft be remembered, what great advantages may be gained by keeping them; for befides that the elephant is extremely docile, fenfible, and obedient, its ftrength is very confiderable. It is faid to be able with its trunk, to • lift two hundred weight on to its ihoulders from the ground without the leaft difficulty, and to carry goods to the amount of three thoufand two hundred weight with eafe and pleafure. ' It is likewife able to pull up trees by the roots with its tuiks, and break the branches off with its fnout (vid. B u f f o n , 1. c. p. 4 1 , 42;) nay, with this lingular inftrument it can untie knots with great readinefs, open locks, and take up the fmalleft piece o f money from the ground. « But
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