June 2, 1884.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



871 



" The Madras elephants have been said to be from 17 to 

 20 feet high. Now let us see how dimensions shrink before 

 the severity of measurement. Mr. Oorso heard from se- 

 veral gentlemen who had been at Dacca that the Nabob 

 there had au elephant 14 feet high. Mr. Oorse was de- 

 shous to measure him, especially as he had seen the eleph- 

 ant frequently at a former time, and then supposed him 

 to be 12 feet high. He accordingly went to Dacca. At 

 first he sent for the mahout or driver, who, without hesit- 

 ation, informed him that the elephant was from 12 to 14 

 cubits — that is from 15 to IS feet high. Mr. Oorse mea- 

 sured the elephant exactly, and was rather surprised to 

 find that the animal did not exceed 10 feet in height." 



In my own experience I have had some amusing in- 

 stances of the difficulty of getting at absolute fact in this 

 matter. 1 have for some years made a point of ascert- 

 aining the height of all the largest elephants I have heard 

 of in India. Five years ago I inserted a request for in- 

 formation on this subject in all the chief newspapers of 

 India. Accounts of 11 and 12 feet elephants poured in, 

 but none stood the test of inquiry. To make it worth any 

 one's while to establish such dimensions, I offered to give 

 an order upon any gunmaker for the best double-barrelled 

 riUe, and all accessories to any gentleman who could pro- 

 tluce evidence of an elephant even 11 feet high. This was 

 never done, and I only found one elephant above 10 feet. 

 This magnificent elephant belongs to the Maharajah of 

 Nahuu-Sirmoor, in the Punjaub, and measures 10 feet 7i 

 inches in vertical height at the mthers. I made a journey 

 of 100 miles in a palanquin to measure him with my own 

 hands. He is tho only elephant over 10 feet m height 

 that I have ever seen amongst many thousands, and he 

 must be regarded as not less phenomenal than a human 

 being of 8 feet. 



In connection with this subject I may mention that twice 

 round an elephant's fore-foot is his height, within au inch 

 or two ; more frequently it is exactly so. Out of many 

 hundreds of elephants of all ages which I have measiued, 

 I have only once found the variation to be as much as 

 five inches. 



There is at present in the Indian Musexun in Calcutta 

 the skeleton of a male Indian elephant which Dr. Ander- 

 son, tho Superintendent, mformed me he thought must have 

 stood about Hi feet when alive. But this estimate is based 

 entirely on the height of the skeleton as at present set 

 up, which may be, tad in my humble opinion is, too great. 



I unfortunately have not got my note-book, which con- 

 tains the height of the skeleton with me in London. The 

 elei)hant to which this skeleton belonged was shot whilst 

 wild, and therefore could not have been measiured when 

 on the ground with any approach to accm-acy. It was 

 undoubtedly an exceptionally large animal, but was not 

 over 10 feet, in my opinion, based upon the following con- 

 sideration. There is now in tho British JMuseum, in South 

 Kensington, a skeleton which 1 lately brought to England 

 of an elephant which died in June 1633, at Dacca. I meas- 

 ured this elephant most accurately before his death ; his 

 height was 9 ft. 10 in. at the shoulder. Now, his femur 

 bone measures over all 3 ft. 11 j in., and is only an inch 

 shorter than that of the skeleton in the Indian Museum in 

 Calcutta. This seems to me to be a reliable ground of 

 comparison between tho two, and to be fatal to the claim 

 advanced for the Calcutta Museum elephant of being 20 

 inches taller than one with a fcmm- bone only 1 inch 

 shorter. 



In June 1878 I measured the since famous African ele- 

 phant. Jumbo. He was then 10 in. 5 ft. at the withers, and 

 being about 17 years old, was still growing. I have been 

 unable to ascertain his exact height, measured in the fore- 

 going manner, when he left Kngland for America in 1882. 

 His height was tlien taken to the top of his back, with 

 his fore and hind feet brought near together. Tlii.s would 

 tend to arch his back very considerably. Ho measured 



II ft. in. in this way ; but as his forefoot planted lirmly 

 on the ground measured 5 ft. in., his height at withers 

 was probably about 11 ft. According to Sir Sanuiel Baker 

 who has seen large umnbers of both Asiatic and African 

 elephants in their native wilds, the Africans, male and 

 female, average about one foot higher tlian the Asiatic. 

 The case of Jumbo appears to confirm this to a great ex- 

 tent as regards male elephants; but I have never icen 



African, females even as large as Asiatic females. Of course 

 in captivity we do not see one African to 1 ,000 Asial ics 

 (taking India into account), so the comparison is unfavour- 

 able to the Africans. 



Much misapprehension prevails regarding the uses and 

 powers of the elephant's trunk. This organ is chicily used 

 by the animal to procure its food, aud to convey it and 

 water to its mouth ; also to warn it of danger by tho senses 

 of smell and touch. It is a delicate and sensitive organ, 

 and is never used for rough work. In any dangerous 

 situation the elephant at once guards it by curling it up. 

 The idea that he can use it for any purpose from picking 

 up a needle to dragging a piece of ordnance from a bog 

 is, like many others epnneeted with the elciDhaut, foimded 

 entu-ely upon imagination. An elephant might manage tho 

 former feat, though I doubt it (I have never seen elephants 

 raise coins and such small articles otherwise than by suc- 

 tion) ; the latter he would not attempt. Elephants engaged 

 in such work as dragging timber invariably take the rope 

 between their teeth ; they never attempt to pull a heavy 

 weight with the trunk. An elephant is powerful enough 

 to extricate a camion from a difficult situation, but he does 

 it by pushing with his head or feet, or in harness, never 

 by lifting or drawing with the ti'unk. Elephants do not 

 push with tho forehead or region above the eyes, but with 

 the base of the trunk or snout about one foot below the 

 eyes. 



I may here mention that I have seen many instances 

 of very severe injury to their trunks amongst wild eleph- 

 ants. These were evidently caused by the sharp edges of 

 split bamboos whilst the animals were feeding. Some 

 have had from a few inches to a foot of the member totally 

 useless, merely hanging by a little muscle, both nostrils 

 having been cut through. 



The age to wliich the elephant lives is, as must ever be 

 the case with denizens of the forest, imcertaiu. The 

 general native opinion is that they attain 120 years in 

 exceptional cases (they have been known to reach this ago 

 m captivity), but more usually to 80 years. Under the 

 more favourable conditions of a natural hfe the elephant 

 must attain a much grearer age than in captivity. I think 

 it by no means improbable, looking to their peculiar denti- 

 tion and other circumstances, that elephants live to 150 or 

 200 years, but this view is, of course, to a great extent a 

 supposition. 



One of the most remarkable facts in connection with 

 wild elephants is the extreme rarity of any remains of dead 

 ones being found in the jungles. This circumstance is so 

 marked as to have given rise to the belief amongst some 

 wild tribes that wild elephants never die ; whilst others be- 

 lieve that there is a place, unseen by human eye, to which 

 they rctu'e to end their days. The latter belief is unten- 

 able, as there are no parts of the forests of India that aro 

 not well known to, aud occasionally visited by, the wild tribes 

 who inhabit them. 



In my own wamlerings for many years through elephant 

 jungles 1 have only seen the remains of one female ele- 

 phant that had died in giving birth to a calf, and of one 

 elephant drowned in a mountain torrent. Not only 

 have I never seen the remains of an elephant that had 

 died a natural death, but 1 never met anyone amongst tho 

 jungle tribes or professional elephant hunters wlio had. 

 Sir Emerson Tennent says in his work on Ceylon : — " The 

 natives generally assert that the body of a dead elephant 

 is seltlom or ne^'<'r to be discovered in the woods. And 

 certain it is that frequenters of the forest with whom I 

 have conversed, whether Europeans or Sinhalese, are con- 

 sistent in their assurances that they have never found the 

 remains of one elephant that had died a uatural death. A 

 European gentleman, who for 3(3 years without intermission 

 had ijeen living in the jungle, ascending to the summits of 

 moimtaius in the 2)rosecution of trigonometrical surveys, 

 and penetrating the valleys m tracuig roads and opening 

 means of communication — one, too, who had made the habits 

 of wild elephants a suljject of constant observation and 

 study — lias often expressed to me his astonishment that,' 

 after seeing many thousands of living elephants in all i)oss- 

 ible situations, he had never yet found a single skeleton of 

 a flcad one, except those which had fallen by the rifle. The 

 Singhalese have a superstition in relation to the close of 

 life in the elephant; they believe that, on feeling the ap- 

 proach of dissolution, he repairs to a solitary valley, and 

 here r esigus ium&clf to death. ' 



