"Elephants," says Mrs. A. H. Brackenbury, of Singapore, to whom we
are indebted for our sketch, "work in the timber yards of Moulmein,
carrying huge planks, sometimes two or three together, and with
great care and exactitude piling them in stacks one over another.
The old hands take a sidelong view with one eye closed to test the
perpendicularity of the stacks. The elephants lift the planks with
their proboscis on their tusks, and then tuck their trunks around the
burden, and march majestically off as if they were carrying nothing.
A man sits on each elephant's neck to direct him, which he does by
kicking or pressing behind their ears.
"In Africa the elephants are being so persistently slaughtered for the
sake of their ivory that they are likely soon to become extinct.
"Would it be possible to breed them on farms as ostriches are bred, and
then to employ them in navvy work, for which they are probably as well
suited (education being supplied) as their Asiatic cousins?
"Moulmein is a very pretty place, and its charms are enhanced by its
being out of the beaten track of tourists. It is up a river, and there
are many islands on which are perched the daintiest little gilt and
painted Burmese pagodas. The scene recalls the well known view on the
willow-pattern plate of our childhood, which plate has once more become
fashionable."--_London Graphic_.
[Illustration: ELEPHANTS MOVING TIMBER AT MOULMEIN, BRITISH BURMAH.]
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