Note 212 — LIFE OF POMPEIUS.

The lion is a native of North Africa, but it is doubtful if the elephant is. The Carthaginians employed many elephants in their armies, which they probably got from the countries south of the great desert. Plutarch evidently considers the elephant as a native of North Africa, or he would not speak of hunting it; yet in chapter 14 he speaks of the elephants as the King's, or the King's elephants, as if the elephants that Pompeius took were merely some that belonged to Iarbas or some of the African kings, and had got loose. Plinius (N.H. viii. 1) speaks of elephants in the forests of Mauritania. They are enumerated by Herodotus (iv. 191) among the beasts of North Africa.