26 



The Wild Elephant. 



All the elephant hunters and nati\-es witli whom I have 

 spoken on the subject, concur in opinion that its range 

 of vision is circumscribed, and that it relies more on the 

 ear and the sense of smell than on its sight, which is 

 liable to be obstructed by dense foliage ; besides which, 

 from the formation of its short neck, the elephant is in- 

 capable of directing the range of the eye much above the 

 level of the head.i 



This small sphere of vision is sufficient to account for 

 the excessive caution of the elephant, its alami at unusual 



' After writing the above, I was per- 

 nWtted by the late Dr. Harrison, of 

 Dublin, to see some accurate drawings 

 of the brain of an elephant, which he 

 had the opportunity of dissecting in 

 1847 ; and on looking to that of the base. 



I have foimd a remarkable verification 

 of the information which I had pre- 

 viously collected in Ceylon. 



The small figure A is the ganglion of 

 the fifth nerve, showing the small motor 

 and large sensitive portion. 



Olfactorj' lobes — larpe. 



Optic 1 



■small. 



The olfactory lobes, from which the 

 olfactory nerves proceed, are large, 

 whilst the optic and muscular nerfcs 

 of the orbit are singularly small for so 

 vast an animal : and one is immediately 

 .struck by the prodigious size of the 



7-^^~-Th!r(! imir — small. 

 -:**-i^ iunh pair— small. 



. two portions of fifth pair; scnsi- 

 ve portionvery large, for piobosci.-*. 

 ih pair— small, 

 ^venlh pair — portio dura, or motor, 

 very large for proboscis. 



fifth nerve, which supplies the proboscis 

 with its e.Kquisite sensibility, as well as 

 by the great size of the motor portion 

 of the seventh, which supplies the same 

 organ with its power of movement and 

 action. 



