Page:Jungle Joe, pride of the circus; the story of a trick elephant (IA junglejoeprideof00hawk).pdf/21

 an air of mystery about his driver that he at onee strikes twelve in the ehildish mind. From the elephants, the parade gradually fades away to the vanishing point.

This being the case, is it not wise to preface this book with a short sketch of the elephant family, especially as there will be some important facts included in this introduction which will not be touched upon in the main portion of the story?

The elephant family has been in the past very important, and a very large family. There are about fourteen distinct species found in fossils and in prehistoric rocks. But now the family has dwindled to two species: the African and the Asiatic elephant.

Of these, the African is slightly the larger and much the more untamable. There are very few cases of African ele-