HEIGHT OF ELEPHANTS. 55 



The large area of rice-fields within the bed of the Honganoor lake was 

 assessed long ago at one-third the usual rates on account of the depredations 

 of elephants. The actual damage caused to crops by wild elephants is much 

 less than is popularly supposed. The chief evil of their presence is the bar 

 they oppose to any advance in certain localities. Agricultural progress in 

 India is always on a very small scale. One cultivator secures an acre or 

 two of land, and opens it up in rough style, but as he possesses little capital 

 to withstand a bad season, he generally abandons his land if his first crop be 

 eaten up by elephants or other animals. Reclamation in jungle -localities 

 only succeeds where several ryots open land together. In Mysore every 

 facility is given by Government in granting jungle-land free of rent for 

 some years, and on a reduced rental for a further term ; but the country 

 bordering jungle -tracts is seldom sufficiently populous to necessitate any 

 extensive incursions upon the surrounding jungles. When the necessity 

 arises elephants can be easily driven back. 



The usually received notions of the height which elephants attain are 

 much in excess of fact. Out of some hundreds of tame and newly-caught 

 elephants which I have seen in the South of India and in Bengal, also from 

 Burmah and different parts of India, and of which I have carefully measured 

 all the largest individuals, I have not seen one 10 feet in vertical height at 

 the shoulder. The largest was an elephant in the Madras Commissariat stud 

 at Hoonsoor, which measured 9 feet 10 inches. The next largest are two 

 tuskers belonging to his Highness the Maharajah of Mysore, each 9 feet 8 

 inches, captured in Mysore some forty years ago, and still alive. 



Of females, the largest I have measured — two leggy animals in the stud 

 at Dacca — were respectively 8 feet 5 inches and 8 feet 3 inches. As illus- 

 trating how exceptional this height is in females, I may say that, out of 140 

 elephants captured by me in kheddahs in Mysore and Bengal, in 1874 and 

 1876, the tallest females were just 8 feet. The above are vertical measure- 

 ments at the shoulder. 



In India elephants are often measured by throwing a tape over the 

 shoulders, or even back, the ends being brought to the ground on each side, 

 and half the length taken as the animal's height/'* Even the same elephant 

 varies with its condition when measured in this way. An 8 -feet elephant, 

 in fair condition, gives a height of 8 feet 9 inches by this method. 



There is little doubt that there is not an elephant 1 feet at the shoulder 



in India. As bearing on this subject, I may quote the following from the 



English Cyclopaedia. The Mr Corse referred to therein was a gentleman 



evidently thoroughly conversant with elephants, probably in charge of the 



* This accounts for the 11 or 12 feet elephants we sometimes hear of. 



