There were some, indeed, that were so much disordered by their fears, that they threw themselves into the river in the midst of their passage. This accident was fatal to the conductors, who perished in the stream: but the beasts themselves, exerting all their strength, and raising their large trunks above the surface of the river, were by that means enabled not only to breathe freely, but to discharge the waters also, as fast as they received them; and having, by long struggling, surmounted likewise the rapidity of the stream, they at last all gained the opposite bank in safety.” Hannibal’s march along the bank of the Isère, in his approach to the famous pass of the Little St. Bernard, was attended by many dangers. The natives mounted the sides of the high passes, and hurled huge rocks and bowlders down upon the elephants and men. But everywhere the strange beasts produced the greatest terror; and, as they approached the Alps, forces that had gathered to oppose them fled at the sight of them. The march was accomplished in fifteen days, at an enormous loss, the passes being strewn with men and beasts. “Great was the tumult there, Deafening the din, when, in barbaric pomp, The Carthaginian, on his march to Rome, Entered their fastnesses. Trampling the snows, The war-horse reared, and the towered elephant Upturned his trunk into the murky sky, Then tumbled headlong, swallowed up and lost, He and his rider.” ROGERS’S _Italy_. Many elephants were lost in the mountain passes, but enough were saved to make a formidable appearance in the battles of Ticinus and Trebia. How so many were taken over, considering the nature of the Alpine passes, is somewhat astonishing; and it is stated by Livy, that in some places the elephants of Macedon were delayed while special bridges were constructed for them to cross. Hannibal, on the other hand, pushed through with the energy that characterized all his movements; and the passage of his army and elephants through the Alps is one of the most remarkable feats in military history, ancient or modern. Ancient history contains interesting accounts of the battles in which the elephant took part. Livy says that the Gauls, who were the allies of the Romans, fled before them. According to Appian, the Roman horse were alarmed at the sight and smell of the strange animals; and Silius Italicus gives the elephant of Hannibal full credit for all his victories. The poet of the Punic war thus, in characteristic language, describes a fight between an elephant and a Roman soldier:—