Ill] OF WHALES AND ELEPHANTS 203 



Ratio of height to weight in man * 



The same index may be used as a measure of the condition, even 

 of the quaUty, of an animal; three Burmese elephants had the 

 following heights, weights, and reputations!: 



But a great African elephant, 10 ft. 10 in. high, weighed 14,640 Ib.J : 

 whence the weight-height coefficient was no more than 1-15. That is 

 to say, the African elephant is considerably taller than the Indian, 

 and the weight-height ratio is correspondingly less. 



Lastly, by means of the same index we may judge, to a first rough 

 approximation, the weight of a large animal such as a whale, where 

 weighing is out of the question. Sigurd Rusting has given us 

 many measurements, and many foetal weights, from the Antarctic 

 whale-fishery: among which, choosing at random, we find that a 

 certain foetus of the blue whale, or Sibbald's rorqual, measured 

 4 ft. 6 in. long, and weighed 23 kilos, or say 46 lb. A whale of the 

 same kind, 45 ft. long, should then weigh 46 x 10^ lb., or about 

 23 tons; and one of 90 ft., 23 x 2^ tons, or over 180 tons. Again 

 in seven young unborn whales, measuring from 39 to 54 inches and 

 weighing from 10 to 23 kilos, the mean value of the index was found 



* Data from Sir C. Goringe, The English Convict, H.M. Stationery Office, 1913. 

 See also J. A, Harris and others. The, Measurement of Man, Minnesota, 1930, p. 41. 

 t Data from A. J. Milroy, On the management of elephants, Shillong, 1921. 

 % D. P. Quireng, in Qrcrwth, iii, p. 9, 1939. 



