THE ELEPHANT. 77 



service of man. It is, however, certain, that it is in an eminent 

 degree capable of a secondary application to his purposes. The 

 immense quantity of forage it requires, plainly shows that it is 

 not an animal of general use in a domestic state ; and even in 

 the countries where they most abound, and are most used, they 

 are seldom kept, except by the great and opulent. As they do 

 not propagate in a domestic state, the eastern princes are obliged 

 to send every year into the forests, to procure fresh supplies, to 

 make up the deficiencies of number unavoidably occasioned by 

 age, disease, or accident. They are frequently hunted by the 

 Dutch colonists at the Cape of Good Hope, who make great 

 advantage of their teeth. The largest teeth weigh a hundred 

 and fifty Dutch pounds, and are sold for as many guilders ; so 

 that an expert shooter may, at one shot, earn three hundred 

 guilders. It is not, therefore, to be wondered at, that a traffic 

 so lucrative should tempt them to run great risks. 



In approaching this animal, great care must be taken ; for if 

 the elephant discover his enemy, he rushes out upon him. 



One of these hunters, being on a plain, under the shelter of a 

 few scattered trees, thought he should be able to approach near 

 enough to shoot at an elephant that was at a little distance from 

 him. The animal, however, discovered, pursued, and overtook 

 him, and, laying hold of him with his trunk, instantly beat him 

 to death. The elephant, however, although thus terrible when 

 provoked, never attacks any but those who have given him of- 

 fence, or are preparing for his destruction. 



We cannot omit to mention an extraordinary phenomenon of 

 natural history, which has often excited the curiosity, and so well 

 merits the attention, of those who inquire into the works of 

 Nature. 



Teeth of this animal have been found in a fossil state, in places 

 where we can scarcely suppose it possible that it should ever 

 have existed. Some years ago, two great grinding teeth, and 

 part of the tusk of an elephant, were discovered at the depth of 

 forty-two yards in a lead mine in Flintshire, lying in a bed of 

 gravel. The grinders were almost as perfect as if just taken 

 from the living elephant ; but the tusk was much decayed, and 

 very soft. How they came into such a situation, is a problem 

 that neither historians nor naturalists can solve ; and the cir- 

 cumstance appears upon the whole so extraordinary, that it can 

 scarcely be considered as any other than a " lusus nature" 



Near the banks of several rivers of Siberia, tusks and teeth 

 have frequently been dug up, which were formerly ascribed to a 

 creature called the mammoth, but are now universally believed 

 to have belonged to the elephant. The molares, or grinders, are 

 precisely the same with those of the present race ; but both they 



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