42 The Wild Elephant. 



strength than flexibiUty, and fitted to bear an enormous 

 weight upon a level surface, without the necessity of 

 ascending or descending great acclivities."' The same 

 authority assumes that, although the elephant is found 

 in the neighbourhood of mountainous ranges, and will 

 even ascend rocky passes, such a service is a violation of 

 its natural habits. 



Of the elephant of Africa I am not qualified to speak, 

 nor of the nature of the ground which it most frequents ; 

 but certainly the facts in connection with the elephant 

 of India are all irreconcilable with the theory mentioned 

 above. In Bengal, in the Nilgherries, in Nepal, in 

 Burmah, in Siam, Sumatra, and Ceylon, the districts in 

 which the elephants most abound, are all hilly and 

 mountainous. In the latter, especially, there is not a 

 range so elevated as to be inaccessible to them. On 

 the very summit of Adam's Peak, at an altitude of 7,420 

 feet, and on a pinnacle which the pilgrims climb with 

 difficulty, by means of steps hewn in the rock. Major 

 Skinner, in 1S40, found the spoor of an elephant. 



Prior to 1840, and before coffe-plantations had been 

 extensively opened in the Kandyan ranges, there was 

 not a mountain or a lofty feature of land of Ceylon which 

 they had not traversed, in their periodical migrations in 

 search of water ; and the sagacity which they display in 

 " laying out roads " is almost incredible. They generally 

 keep along the backbone of a chain of hills, avoiding 

 steep gradients : and one curious observation v/as not 

 lost upon the Government surveyors, that in crossing 



' Menageries, etc. "The Elephant," ch. ii. 



