THE GREAT THICK-SKINNED ANIMALS 15-, 



If you could look carefully at the foot of an elephant, you would 

 see that it is encased in a kind of hoof, which protects it from injury 

 upon the ground. But this hoof has other purposes as well, for it 

 must serve to break the shock of the footfall, which must of course 

 result from every step of so heavy a body. And consequently it is 

 formed of a vast number of elastic horny plates and india-rubber-like 

 pads, so that, when the enormous animal treads, its footsteps are nearly 

 ,as noiseless as those of a cat. 



If you have ever ridden upon an elephant, you must have noticed 

 two things. Ais the animal moves the legs of one side nearly together, 

 the body sways from side to side at each double step. Also, though 

 the elephant is so heavy, and the legs so apparently clumsy, the step 

 is so soft, that the rider not only does not hear it, but actually feels 

 no jar as the foot touches the ground. 



This gentle movement is partly due to the elastic plates, which 

 act something like our own steel carriage-springs, but in a different 

 direction, and partly to the pads, which act just like the india-rubber 

 tires of a bicycle-wheel. 



Now, if we had never seen an elephant, or a picture of one, and 

 had not even heard the animal described to us, w^e might very well 

 wonder how so large and bulky an animal, with a neck so short that the 

 mouth could not reach within several feet of the ground, could possibly 

 supply itself with food and drink. If we had been asked to invent a 

 way in w4iich this could be done, we should certainly have failed, for, 

 clever as man is, such a task would be quite beyond his powers. 



But nature found no difficulty in doing so, for she modified the 

 snout and the upper lip into a long trunk, or proboscis, which is so 

 wonderfully useful that it can be employed for a great variety of 

 purposes. As one writer has very well said, with its trunk the elephant 

 can uproot or shake trees, lift a cannon, or pick up a pin; by its aid 

 it can carry both food and water to the mouth, while, upon a hot day, 

 it can turn the same organ into a showier-bath, and sprinkle its body 

 with cool and refreshing water. 



A wonderful organ, indeed, must be the trunk, which can fulfil 

 so many purposes, and one gifted as much with a delicate sense of 

 touch as with great and almost giant strength. And this is in very 



