56 The Wild Elephant. 



own use by scooping out the sand to the depth of four 

 or five feet, and leaving a hollow for the percolation of 

 the spring. But as the weight of the elephant would 

 force in the side if left perpendicular, one approach is 

 always fomied with such a gradient that he can reach 

 the water with his trunk without disturbing tlie sur- 

 rounding sand. 



I have reason to believe, although the fact has not been 

 authoritatively stated by naturalists, that the stomach of 

 the elephant will be found to include a chamber ana- 

 logous to that possessed by some of the laiminants, cal- 

 culated to contain a supply of water as a provision against 

 emergencies. The fact of his being enabled to retain a 

 quantity of Avater and discharge it at pleasure has been 

 long known to every observer of the habits of the 

 animal ; but the proboscis has always been supposed to 

 be " his water-reservoir," * and the theory of an internal 

 receptacle has not been discussed. The trath is that the 

 anatomy of the elephant is even yet but imperfectly 

 understood,^ and, although some peculiarities of his 



' 'B'ROD'E^w^s Zoological Recreations, satisfactorily completed, the great mass 



p. 259. falls into putrefaction. 



° For observing the osteology of the The principal English authorities are 



elephant, materials are of course abun- A?i Anatomical Accoutit of the Ele- 



dant in the indestructible remains of phant accidentally bitrnt in Dublin, 



the animal : but the study of the intes- by A. Molyneux, a.d. 1696 ; which ib> 



tines, and the dissection of the softer probably a reprint of a letter on the same 



parts by comparative anatomists in subject in the library of Trinity College, 



Europe, have been up to the present Dublin, addressed by A. Moulin to Sir 



time beset by difficulties. These arise William Petty, Lond. 1682. There are 



not alone from the rarity of subjects, also some papers communicated to Sir 



but even in cases where elephants have Hans Sloane, and aftenvards published 



died in these countries, decomposition in the Pliilosophical Transactions of 



interposes, and before the thorough the year 1710, by Dr. P. Bl.-\ir, who 



examination of so vast a body can be had an opportunity of dissecting an 



