ELEPHAS. 385 
nasal passages, and the other broader between the narrow part and the 
posterior longitudinal muscles. 
When we consider the bulk of these well-knit muscles we can no 
longer wonder at the power of which this organ is capable, although, 
according to Mr. Sanderson, its capabilities are much exaggerated ; and 
he explodes various popular delusions concerning it. He doubts the 
possibility of the animal picking up a needle, the common old story 
which I also disbelieve, having often seen the difficulty with which a 
coin is picked up, or rather scraped up ; but he quite scouts the idea of 
an elephant being able to lift a heavy weight with his trunk, giving an 
instance recorded of one of these creatures lifting with his trunk the 
axle of a field-piece as the wheel was about to pass over a fallen gunner, 
which he declares to be a physical impossibility. Certainly the story 
has many elements of improbability about it, and his comments on it 
are caustic and amusing: far excmple, when he asks: “ How did the 
elephant know that a wheel going over the man would not be agree- 
able to him?” ‘That is the weak point in the story—but, however 
intelligent the animal might be, Mr. Sanderson says it is physically 
impossible. 
Another thing that strikes every one is the noiseless tread of this huge 
beast. To describe the mechanism of the foot of the elephant concisely 
and simply I am going to give a few extracts from the observations of 
Professor W. Boyd Dawkins and Messrs. Oakley, Miall, and Green- 
wood: “It stands on the ends of its five toes, each of which is termi- 
nated by comparatively small hoofs, and the heel-bone is a little distance 
from the ground. Beneath comes the wonderful cushion composed, of 
membranes, fat, nerves, and blood-vessels, besides muscles, which con- 
stitutes the sole of the foot” (W. B. D. and H. O.). “ Of the foot as a 
whole—and this remark apples to both fore and hind extremities—the 
separate mobility of the parts is greater than would be suspected from 
an external inspection, and much greater than in most Ungulates. The 
palmar and plantar soles, though thick and tough, are not rigid boxes 
like hoofs, but may be made to bend even by human fingers. The 
large development of muscles acting upon the carpus and tarsus, and 
the separate existence of flexors and extensors of individual digits, is 
further proof that the elephant’s foot is far from being a solid unalter- 
able mass. ‘There are, as has been pointed out, tendinous or ligamen- 
tous attachments which restrain the independent action of some of 
these muscles, but anatomical examinations would lead us to suppose 
that the living animal could at all events accurately direct any part of 
the circumference of the foot by itself to the ground. The metacarpal 
and metatarsalybones form a considerable angle with the surface of the 
sole, while the digits, when supporting the weight of the body, are 
nearly horizontal” (JZ, and G.). This formation would naturally give 
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