CHAPTER II. 



HABITS WHEN WILD. 



Although found generally in warm and sunny climates, 

 it is a mistake to suppose that the elephant is partial 

 either to heat or to light. In Ceylon, the mountain 

 tops, and not the sultry valleys, are its favourite resort. 

 In Ouvah, where the elevated plains are often crisp with 

 the morning frost, and on Pedura-talla-galla, at the 

 height of upwards of eight thousand feet, they may be 

 found in herds at times when the hunter will search for 

 them without success in the hot jungles of the low 

 country. No altitude, in fact, seems too lofty or too 

 chill for the elephant, provided it affords the luxury of 

 water in abundance ; and, contrary to the general opinion 

 that the elephant delights in sunshine, it seems at all 

 times impatient of glare, and spends the day in the 

 thickest depth of the forests, devoting the night to excur- 

 sions, and to the luxury of the bath, in which it also 

 indulges occasionally by day. This partiality for shade is 

 doubtless ascribable to the animal's love of coolness and 

 solitude ; but it is not altogether unconnected with the 

 position of the eye, and the circumscribed use which its 

 pecuhar mode of life permits it to make of the faculty 

 of sicjht. 



