Elephant power is the most valuable adjunct
for the work. The rainy season, when
brooks and streams are full, the ground
moist and slippery, and the weather cool for
the animals to work, is the time chosen for
dragging. The corners of the log are cut away at one end, and a drag-hole made
for the elephant chain and the subsequent raft-ties, at each end. The dragging-
paths get worn into troughs in which water lodges and facilitates the work.
Every brook on the way is utilized, for though too scanty to float the log, it
lightens the labour. The elephants are worked a few hours in the morning and
a few in the evening and turned loose at other times, with the fore-feet hobbled,
to forage for themselves. The Karens keep their elephants in excellent con-
dition ; such casualties
as they have are due to
anthrax, which spreads
from the buffaloes, and
to other epidemics. In
the timber-yards at the
seaports, on the other
hand, in spite of grain
and green feeding and
great care, the animals
are worn out in a
few years. Elephants
are heavy enough for











H :^'- -t)Avy, t^^MSSBima^



268. DRAGGING THE LOG.
ii8



BURMA




259. PUSHINQ THE LOGS OFF THE SHOALS (AUNG).
timber-work at eighteen
years, and are at their
prime from thirty to sixty.
