ELEPHANTS AS LUMBER JACKS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 289, 2 September 1919, Page 5

ELEPHANTS AS LUMBER JACKS

■ CLEVER WORKERS IN SIAM. The elephants are our chief standby in tjiuui and without tliem teak coukt not bo worked, as it grows ill such inaccessible places that; no hauling macuine coirlu be brought near tho trees, says -a writer in "Asift." Elephants can climb like cats, it is marvellous to see them pick their way up and down steep slopes, but sometimes they lose their l'ootiiold. One of our elephants fell clMvii a steep river bank last year, hit h« head against a rock and broke her nock. The work of the elephants consists in climbing up to the rallen trees and pushing or rolhaj-j them down hill to a f-p'jt where it is level enough for drugging chains to be atl ached. Tnen tliey drag the logs down to tae nearist floating creek, often fix or seven miles away. An elephant can handle from tiity to seventy logs per season, which lascs from about June 1 till the end of -February. Then it becomes too hot for them to work, und tney go into rest camps until the next nuns. _ The elepiiants do .their best work in floating streams, working the timber with the current, releasing irom jams and rolling tho stranded logs back into the water. The elephant drivers have a special "elephant' language whicii the animals unuerstaud-a special elephant vocabulary with such terms as "Push sideways," "Roll," "Pull out," "Stop/ "Lift y\ir chains." ... It is very interesting and exciting to watch the elephants- at work in liiyh water. They are magnificent swimmers. When they swim fiom bank to _ bank, herding the logs that require their special attention, ycu -'ieo nothing of them except the tip:? of tlieir trunks through whicn they breathe, and the mahouts, or drivel's, who are generally in water up to their waists. J.f a big stack or ja; breaks suddenly whero elepuanw are Working, they know the danger of being overtaken. They trumpet ami clear off to either bank or nwim downstream i»<fast as they can go. 1 once saw _an elephant working at the iieaU of a jam slip off a rock into deep water and gel swept under tho staek. We all believitliat he was a gonei, but every now and then we were surprised to see his trim; come up through tin logs, suck in a long breath and disappear. The trunk woulu reappear each time further downstream. He finally emerged at the foot of the jam, very much blown, but otherwise none t; worse for his accident. But lio wouli' not go near a pile of timber in high water for a year afterwards. This pai tieular work is calUil "hounding."