Hlodc of Eating. 6 



o 



the young elephant, recently arrived, may serve to de- 

 cide this highly interesting point. ^ Should scientific in- 

 vestigation hereafter more clearly establish the fact that, 

 in this particular, the stmcture of the elephant is as- 

 similated to that of the llama and the camel, it will be 

 regarded as more than a mere coincidence, that an appa- 

 ratus, so unique in its purpose and action, should have 

 been conferred by the Creator on the three animals which 

 in sultry climates are, by this arrangement, enabled to 

 traverse arid regions in the service of man.^ To show 

 this peculiar organisation where it attains its fullest de- 

 velopment, I have given a sketch of the water-cells in the 

 stomach of the camel on the preceding page. 



Ihtfood of the elephant is so abundant, that in eating 

 he never appears to be impatient or voracious, but rather 

 to play with the leaves and branches on which he 

 leisurely feeds. In riding by places where a herd has 

 recently halted, I have sometimes seen tlie bark peeled 

 curiously off the twigs, as though it had been done in 

 mere dalliance. In the same way in eating gi-ass the 

 elephant selects a tussac which he draws from the ground 

 by a dexterous twist of his trunk, and nothing can be 

 more graceful than the ease with which, before conveying 



' One of the Indian names for the and burden, have, I believe, a de- 

 elephant is duipa, which signifies " to velopment somewhat more conspicuous 

 drink twice." (Amandi, p. 513.) Can than in the rest of their congeners, of 

 this have reference to the peculiarity the organisation of the reticulum which 

 of the stomach for retaining a supply enables the ruminants generally to en- 

 of water? Or has it merely reference dure thirst, and abstain from water, 

 to the habit of the animal to fill his but nothing in them approaches in sin- 

 trunk before transferring the water to gularity of character to the distinct 

 his mouth ? cavities in the stomach exhibited by the 



^ The buffalo and the humped cattle three animals above alluded to. 

 of India, which are used for draught 



