The Indian or Asiatic Elephant 



likened to the joints of a telescope. The skin is com- 

 paratively smooth, and the coarse bristles on the tail 

 are confined to the front and back edges for some 

 distance above the tip. Other noticeable features in 

 the present species are the comparative flatness of the 

 forehead and the regularly convex profile of the back. 



Much discussion has taken place with regard to the 

 height attained by the Indian elephant, but since the 

 subject has been thoroughly threshed out, it will be 

 treated very briefly on the present occasion. Roughly 

 speaking, about 9 feet may be given as the ordinary 

 height for large males, and 8 feet for females, but in 

 Ceylon the average is from 7 feet 6 inches to 8 feet 



6 inches. An elephant of about 9 feet 9 inches has, 

 however, been killed in Ceylon,^ and one of 9 feet 



7 inches in Mysore ; while two are known to have 

 attained the height of 10 feet i inch, a third of 10 feet 

 4 inches, and a fourth (killed by the late Viscount 

 Powerscourt in Gurhwal) of 1 1 feet. A very large 

 elephant was also recorded some time ago in one of 

 the Indian papers. These dimensions appear to be 

 dwarfed by a skeleton in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, 

 which seems to indicate an animal of nearly a dozen 

 feet high. 



Of tusks, the three longest specimens on record 

 respectively measure 8 feet 9 inches, 8 feet 2 inches, 

 and 8 feet ; their respective weights being 81, 80, and 

 90 lbs ; but these are by no means the heaviest — one, 

 whose length is 7 feet 3|- inches, weighing 102 lbs., 

 while a second, of which the length is 7 feet 3^ inches, 

 scaled 97^ lbs., both the two latter being from Ceylon. 

 Of the largest pair in the British Museum, belonging 

 to an elephant killed in 1866 by the late Colonel 

 G. M. Payne in Madura, one tusk measures 6 feet 



8 inches in length, and weighs 77^ lbs., while the other 

 is somewhat smaller. As regards the circumference 

 of the base of the foot, the following dimensions, 



1 Storey, Hunting and Shooting in Ceylon, p. i lo. 

 II 



