Cost Of Elephants

It is somewhat interesting to compare the weights carried by elephants in the tin producing distriets oí the Malay península with those used in the long jonrneys and mountainous country of the Lao states. In the peninsnla the distances are seldom more than at most three or four days' march, and the elephant is expected to carry as much as 900 or 1,000 pounds, besideshis mahout and howdah. The latter is of ten a mere brace of panniers slung together so as to rest one on each side of the backbone and covered sometimes with a light barrel roof of bark. A good tusker carrying 9% hundredweight will fetch about L56, and a female which can bear eight hundredweight is worth about L45. In the Lao states, where jopmeys of ten days or three weeks are frequent, the average weight hardly exceeds 800 pounds, or one-third of what is usual in the peninsula. The prices in various parts of the country vary considerably. When we were on the Me Kawng and in Muang Nan in 1893, a good tusker could be had for L32 and a female tor L24. At Chieng JMai, where good teak hauling elephants are in great deinand, a tusker may fetch L150 and a female anything from L50 to L100, according