287 



CHAP. 11. 



HABITS WHEN WILD. 



Although found generally in warm and sunny cli- 

 mates, it is a mistake to suppose that the elephant is 

 partial either to heat or to light. In Ceylon, the 

 mountain tops, and not the sultry valleys, are his fa- 

 vourite resort. In Oovah, where the elevated plains 

 are often crisp with the morning frost, and on Pedi^o- 

 taUa-galla, at tlie heiglit of upwards of eight thousand 

 feet, they are found in herds, whilst the hunter may 

 search for them without success in the jungles of the 

 low country. No altitude, in fact, seems too lofty or 

 too chill for the elephant, provided it affords the luxury 

 of water in abundance ; and, contrary to the general 

 opinion that the elephant dehghts in sunshine, he seems 

 at all times impatient of its glare, and spends the day 

 in the thickest depth of the forests, devoting the night to 

 excursions, and to the luxury of the bath, in wdiich he 

 also indulges occasionally by day. This partiality for 

 shade is doubtless ascribable to his love of coolness 

 and solitude ; but it is not altogether unconnected with 

 the position of his eye, and tlie circumscribed use which 

 his peculiar mode of hfe permits him to make of his 

 faculty of sight. 



All the elephant hunters and natives to whom I have 

 spoken on the subject, conciu" in opinion that his range 

 of vision is circumscribed, and that lie rehes more on his 

 ear and his sense of smell, than on his sight, which is 

 liable to be obstructed by the dense fohage ; besides 

 which, from the formation of his neck, he is incapable 



