THE ELEPHANT. 35 



generic name {Loxodonte) has therefore been proposed for the 

 African elephant. 



The obscurity which formerly prevailed respecting the 

 mode of reproduction of the elephant has been dissipated 

 in a great measure by the accurate and assiduous obser- 

 vations of our countryman, Mr. Corse. And it is a re- 

 markable instance of the difficulty of eradicating a popular 

 error or prejudice, that notwithstanding the circumstantial 

 evidence and authentic description given by this gentleman 

 relative to the above subject, it is still very generally be- 

 lieved that in a state of subjection the elephant is unaltera- 

 bly barren ; and that though it has been reduced under the 

 dominion of man for ages, yet, as if it had a proper sense 

 of its degraded condition, it refuses to increase the pride 

 and power of its conquerors by propagating a race of slaves. 

 This circumstance was adduced by Buffon as one of the most 

 striking instances of the superiority of the elephant, in its 

 moral condition, over other quadrupeds. 



Mr. Corse, who resided for more than ten years at Tiperah, 

 a province of Bengal, where herds of elephants are taken 

 every season, and who for five years had the Company's 

 elephant hunters entirely under his direction, has completely 

 disproved these assertions. Twice during that period he 

 succeeded in breeding from elephants in a state of captivity 

 and servitude, and observes that this mode of supplying the 

 Indian community with so useful an animal is abandoned 

 only from its being more expensive than the ordinary method 

 by the capture of the wild herds ; since the elephants, after 

 being reduced by the process of training, require rest and 

 high feeding to bring them into the requisite condition. 



In this way was ascertained the precise period of gestation 

 in the elephant, which Mr. Corse states to be twenty months 

 and eighteen days. The young animal when born is 35 \ 

 inches high. It soon begins to nibble and suck the breast, 

 pressing it with its trunk to make the milk flow more readily 

 into its mouth while sucking. It has never been observed to 

 use its proboscis in any other manner during this act, but in- 

 variably seized the nipple with the side of its mouth. 



At this period it is a common practice with the elephant 

 attendants to raise a small mound of earth, about six or eight 

 inches high, for the young one to stand on, and thus to save 

 the mother the trouble of bending her body every time she 

 gives suck ; for she has never been observed to lie down for 

 that purpose. The nipples are two in number, and are situ- 

 ated between the fore legs. 



It is remarkable that the elephant, although having but one 



d 2 



