THE ELEPHANTS DISLIKE TO DOGS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LVI, Issue 6489, 14 December 1881, Page 3

THE ELEPHANTS DISLIKE TO DOGS.

To no animal does the elephant ape car to have such an intense dislike a« the dog, and the result of this is that many hunters, who look for profit and not sport, employ them constantly when engaged in shooting the lord cf the forest. Dogs destined for this purpose (says the author of “ Encounters with wild Beasts”) soon learn their work, and enter into it with evident enjoyment. One «r two lessons are sufficient to make the pupil perfect, particularly if accompanied by a comrade that has had experience. I was several times present when they were employed by both Boer and native hunters, and never was more surprised than to witness the egregious folly of an animal accredited as the most sagacious of quadrupeds. Whsn tho trail or spoor was discovered, the eurs were let loose, and off they went upon the fresh scent as rapidly as their legs could carry them. Superior speed soon brought them up with the foe, when barking, snapping, and even biting, at once brought the antagonist to bay. In this position tbs poor beast would be surrounded, some badgering and threatening him in front, while others snapped at his heels. Again he would single out one as the •pedal object of his westh, and fruitlessly pursue him for twenty or thirty paces, of course by such a step leaving his rear open for fresh indignities. Again the irritated animal would fall on one knee, then on another, as if in anticipation of crushing his diminutive foes under him. These devices having failed, he would place his head against a small tree, and bring all his powers to bear against it, as if hoping that in its fall it would .crush some of his tormentors. While the giant is being thus assailed, the hunter can, without the least apprehension, approach within so short a distance of the quarry as almost to moke certain of killing it at the first shot.