CHAPTER XVII 



The Great Thick-skinned Animals 



The Elephant. ^First of all in point of interest comes the 

 elephant, the giant pachyderm, as his family is known to 

 science. Attaining the height of twelve feet at the shoulders 

 and a length of eighteen or nineteen feet, it is indeed an impressive 

 sight to meet even a single elephant in his native forest. His strength 

 is enormous, and the spectacle of whole trees torn up by the roots and 

 broken off close to the ground as a result of a playful moment is an 

 awe-inspiring one. 



The African elephant differs in some respects from the Asiatic 

 species more commonly seen. His skin is black and nearly destitute 

 of hair and the tail is short with a tufted end. The head is rounder, 

 forehead more convex and ears much larger than in the Asiatic 

 elephant. The latter are very flat, reaching to the legs, and over- 

 lapping each other on the top of the neck. Each foot has five toes. 

 The tusks are arched, between eight and nine feet long and weighing 

 about one hundred pounds. The female is upwards of eight feet high 

 and usually provided with tusks about four feet long. 



The weight of a full-grown bull elephant is really immense; it 

 may be imagined how wonderfully powerful are the limbs which can 

 carry that weight over the ground at a speed nearly equal to that of 

 a horse. 



But nature has taken very good care that these limbs shall not 

 be too weak for their task. Indeed, they are like so many pillars, so 

 massively are they formed, and so firmly planted upon the ground. 

 And, if you take notice, the hind legs have not the peculiar "knee-" 

 joint, as it is often but wrongly called, which we see in the horse, 

 and which would take away very much from the strength of those 

 limbs. 



Now, I dare say you will be rather surprised when I tell you 



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