184 Natural Hi/lory of the Elephant. 



He was meafured on the 18th of June, 1 796. 



From foot to foot over the flioulder 

 From the top of the ftioulder, perpendicular- height 

 From the top of the head, when fet up, as he ought to march in flate 

 From the front of the face to the inftrtion of the tail - - ^ 



Captain Sandys, of the Bengal eftablilhmenc, obligingly fliewed me a lift of about 150 ele- 

 phants, of which he had the management during the late war with Tippoo Sultaun, in Myfore, 

 and not one of them was ten feet, and only a few males nine feet and a half high. I was very 

 particular in afcertaining the height of the elephants employed at Madras, and with the army 

 under Marquis Cornwallis, where there were both Ceylon and Bengal elephants ; and I have 

 been aflured, that thofe of Ceylon were neither higher, nor fuperior, in any refpeft, to thofe 

 of Bengal ; and fome officers aflert, that they were confiderably inferior, in point of utility. 



The Madras elephants have been faid to be from feventeen to twenty feet high; but, 

 to fliew how much the natives of India are inclined to the marvellous, and how liable 

 Europeans themfelves are to miftakes, I will relate a circumftance that happened to myfelf. 



Having heard, from feveral gentlemen who had been at Dacca, that the Nabob there had an 

 elephant about fourteen feet high, I was defirous to meafure him; efpecially as I had feen him 

 often myfelf, during the year 1785, and then fuppofed him to be above twelve feet. After 

 being at Tiperah, and having feen many elephants caught, in the years 1786, 1787, and 

 1788, and finding all of them much inferior in height to what I fuppofed the Nabob's elephant, 

 I went to Dacca, in 1789, determined to fee this huge animal meafured. At firft, I fent for 

 the driver*, to aflc fome queftions concerning this elephant; he, without hefitation, afTured 

 me he Was from ten to twelve cubits, that is, from fifteen to eighteen feet high ; but added, 

 he could not, without the Nabob's permiffion, tring me the elephant to be examined. Per- 

 miffion was accordingly afked, and granted : I had him meafured exaflly, and was rather fur- 

 prifed to find he did not exceed ten feet in height. 



The honourable company's ftandard, for ferviceable elephants, is feven feet and upwards, 

 meafured at the flioulder, in the fame manner as horfes are. At the middle of the back, 

 they are confiderably higher; the curve or arch of which, particularly in young elephants, 

 makes a difference of feveral inches. 



After an elephant has attained his full growth, it is a fure fign of old age when this curve 

 becomes lefs ; and ftill more fo, when the back is flat, or a little deprefTed. A partial de- 

 preffion of the fpine is, however, no uncommon occurrence, even in very young elephants ; 

 and I am convinced it happens from external injury. I have been furprifed to fee the violence 

 ufed (in herds of wild elephants juft taken) by the large elephants, both male and female, 

 putting the projefting part of the upper jaw, from which the tulks grow out, on the fpine of 

 the young ones, and prefling them to the ground, while they roared from pain. 



It has been ftated, that the fagacity of the elephant is fo great, and his memory fo retentive, 



* Or mabelf, as he is generally called, 



that 



