MAMMALIA— ELEPHANT. 281 



them. They cannot support cold, and suffer equally from excessive heat • 

 for, to avoid the burning rays of the sun, they penetrate into the thickest 

 forests. They also bathe often in the water; the enormous size of their 

 body is rather an advantage to them in swimming, and they do not swim 

 so deep in the water as other animals ; besides, the length of their trunk, 

 which they erect, and through which they breathe, takes from them all fear 

 of being drowned. 



Their common food is roots, herbs, leaves, and young branches ; they also 

 eat fruit and corn, but they have a dislike to flesh and fish. When one of 

 them finds abundant pasture, he calls the others, and invites them to come and 

 feed with him. As they want a great quantity of fodder, they often change 

 their place, and when they find cultivated lands, they make a prodigious 

 waste ; their bodies being of an enormous weight, they destroy ten times more 

 with their feet, than they consume for their food, which may be reckoned at 

 the rate of one hundred and fifty pounds of grass daily. As they never feed 

 but in great numbers, they waste a large territory in about an hour's time ; 

 for this reason, the Indians and the negroes take great pains to prevent their 

 visits, and to drive them away, by making a great noise, and great fires ; not- 

 withstanding these precautions, however, the elephants often take possession 

 of them, drive away the cattle and men, and sometimes pull down their 

 cottages. It is difficult to frighten them, as they are little susceptible of 

 fear ; nothing can stop them but fireworks, and crackers, thrown amongst 

 them, the sudden effect of which, often repeated, forces them sometimes to 

 turnback. It is very difficult to part them, for they commonly attack their 

 enemies all together, proceed unconcerned, or turn back. 



The female elephant goes two years with young ; she only brings forth 

 one at a time, which has teeth as soon as brought forth. He is then larger 

 than a boar ; yet his tusks are not visible, they appear soon after, and at 

 six months old are some inches in length ; at that age, the elephant is 

 larger than an ox, and the tusks continue to increase till he is advanced 

 in years. 



It is very easy to tame the elephant. But there is no domestic elephant 

 that has not been wild before. The manner of taking, taming, and bring- 

 ing them into submission, deserves particular attention. In the middle of 

 forests, and in the vicinity of the places which they frequent, a large space 

 is chosen, and encircled with palisadoes ; the strongest trees of the forest 

 serve instead of stakes, to which cross pieces of timber are fastened, which 

 support the other stakes ; a man may easily pass through this palisado ; 

 there is another great opening, through which the elephant may go in, with 

 a trap hanging over it, or a gate whicn is snut behind him. To bring nim 

 to that inclosure, he must be enticed by a tame female, ready to take the 

 male ; and when her leader thinks she is near enough to be heard, he obliges 

 her to indicate by her cries the condition she is in. The wild male answers 

 immediately, and begins his march to join her : she repeats her call now 

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