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Elephants Carry TheÎr Own Maps Dur'ing the next txvo yeairs, as she followed her eiders i their wanderings, Soondar Moon! gain- ed a thorough practical k-nowl- ed.ge of the hr' territary. A mail gifted with a good eye for country , . . is said ta carry a mnap ir, his 'head. The same is truc of any elephant, wild or tame, and indeed, as far as, one can judge, of Il animais. It is perhaps fanciful ta try taý picture ,what Soondar iMoonîj's brain map mnight have iooked like had some skilied drafts- man been able ta interpret it on paper. It wouid have represented a rough rectangla,'r tract of about five hundred square miles - say a littie over thirty muies from north ta soîith 'by about fifteen froni east ta west. Thiis eiongated shape was dlictated by the sauthward-flowing rivers; it is easier, as w,,eli as nmore profit- able, fdýr a graizing animal ta foi- low a river bed tÏhan ta Cross it. Like. a mnap of saine partiy ex-ý piored country, hers would have inciuded sonie bianks: quite ex- tensive areaýs cantainîng littie eiephant fadder that wer nver~ entered by the herd. ~A human visitor to this part of Assamn at that time - Soondar Mojoni -was born in the early eighities of the la'st century ý- would have described the coun- try as tree forest aii-d savanna Jn roughly equal proportions. He ,would no doubt have mientioned the few wiciely scattered vitlag-es of the Mecli and Babha tribes neaýr streains in the south, the stili sparser settleinents of Bhu- tanese in the foothills ta the normal circturistances except àq soi-e restricted patches of iwhat mighslt be called Cammnon terri- tory where the vegetation - dense nai or open acacia f oreit - pravides fodder for bath corn- munities, Nal is the green, haiiow-stemn- med rush, often mor.e than fit- teen feet in hlighlt, which flour- ishes near permanent wý,ater anci in which, earlier in this story, we pictured thic old tigre-ss as ly- inig up lsteniing ta the cow bell,. Acacia is a thorny littie tree, likec Australian -wattle, growing op the sandy , banks of seasonal rivers; its thin crawn and feath- ery foliage give a sparse shadce beneatlh which grows a sweet, shortish grass. beloved of grazing animais. Elephants like this grass toc), pulling il up by the roots and beating thie earthi off against au uplifted forefoot, though their chlief interest in this sort of forest - as we saw just befare the herd entered the gorge - lies in the abundance cf succulent creepers. They also eat tthe twigs* of the acaci'a itself and, despite the crueiiyv hard thorns, chew them up in their soft-looking plnk m-ouths without apparent discomifort, ý- Froin "Soondar 1\aapoi: The ILife af an Indian Ele- or sio- hie l ne and s cok- yo1.t else- cl f of cou r of e-t oi where it tao- m just 1 moet to have a on the enx- ionery? ram should n the note 1 1 59