Book 44
5
It is impossible to describe the toil and difficulty they experienced in descending the mountain, with the baggage and animals and their packs perpetually falling. They had hardly gone four miles when the one thing they desired above all else was to return if possible to their starting point. The elephants caused almost as much confusion in the line as the enemy might have done; when they came to places which could not be crossed they flung their drivers off and created great alarm, especially among the horses, by their appalling roar, until a plan was devised for getting them across. The steepness of the slope was measured and two long stout poles were firmly fastened in the ground at the bottom of it somewhat wider apart than the breadth of the animal. On the top of the poles a cross-beam was fastened and with their ends resting on this beam, balks 30 feet long were fastened together so as to form a bridge, and then covered with earth. A short distance away another similar bridge was constructed, and then a third, and so on wherever the descent was precipitous. The elephant went from the solid ground on to the bridge, and just before he reached the lower end of it the poles were cut away and the bridge subsided down to the beginning of the next bridge below it. The elephants were thus compelled to slide quietly down, some on their feet, some on their haunches. When the level of the next bridge was reached. the lower end was made to fall in the same way and the elephants were carried down until they reached more level ground.
