"Elephants," says Mrs. A. H. Brackenbury, of Singapore, to whom we are indebted for our sketch, "work in the timber yards of Moulmein, carrying huge planks, sometimes two or three together, and with great care and exactitude piling them in stacks one over another. The old hands take a sidelong view with one eye closed to test the perpendicularity of the stacks. The elephants lift the planks with their proboscis on their tusks, and then tuck their trunks around the burden, and march majestically off as if they were carrying nothing. A man sits on each elephant's neck to direct him, which he does by kicking or pressing behind their ears. "In Africa the elephants are being so persistently slaughtered for the sake of their ivory that they are likely soon to become extinct. "Would it be possible to breed them on farms as ostriches are bred, and then to employ them in navvy work, for which they are probably as well suited (education being supplied) as their Asiatic cousins? "Moulmein is a very pretty place, and its charms are enhanced by its being out of the beaten track of tourists. It is up a river, and there are many islands on which are perched the daintiest little gilt and painted Burmese pagodas. The scene recalls the well known view on the willow-pattern plate of our childhood, which plate has once more become fashionable."--_London Graphic_. [Illustration: ELEPHANTS MOVING TIMBER AT MOULMEIN, BRITISH BURMAH.] * * * * * STRENGTH OF YELLOW PINE.