CiiAP. II.] HABITS WHEN WILD. 291 



the actual inspection of the hving animal, he was sup- 

 posed to grow to the height of twelve or fifteen feet. 

 Even within the last century in popular works on 

 natural history, the elephant, w^hen full grown, was said 

 to measure from seventeen to twenty feet from the 

 ground to the shoulder.* At a still later period, so 

 imperfectly had the facts been collated, that the elephant 

 of Ceylon was beheved " to excel that of Africa in 

 size and strength." ^ But so far fi^om equalling the 

 size of the African species, that of Ceylon seldom 

 exceeds the height of nine feet, even in the Hambang- 

 totte country, where the hunters agree that the largest 

 specimens are to be found, and the ordinary herds do 

 not average more than eight feet. Wolf, in his account 

 of the Ceylon elephant^, says, he saAV one taken near 

 Jaffna wliich measured twelve feet and one inch high. 

 But the truth is, that the general bulk of the elephant 

 so far exceeds that of the animals which w^e are accus- 

 tomed to see daily, that the imagination magnifies his 

 unusual dimensions ; and I have seldom or ever met 

 with an inexperienced spectator who did. not uncon- 

 sciously over-estimate the size of an elephant shown 

 to him, whether in captivity or in a state of nature. 

 Major Denham would have guessed some which he saw 

 in Africa to be sixteen feet in height, but the largest 

 when killed w^as found to measure nine feet six.^ 



For a creature of his extraordinary weight, it is 

 astonishing how noiselessly and stealthily the elephant 

 can make his escape from a pursuer. When suddenly 

 disturbed in the jungle, he will burst away A\ith a rush 

 that seems to bear down all before him ; but the noise 

 sinks into absolute stillness so suddenly, that a novice 

 might well be led to suppose that the fugitive had only 



^ Natural History of Animals. 

 B}' Sir John Hill, M.D. London, 

 1748-52, p. 5G.5. 



2 Shaw's Zoolony. Lond. 1800, 

 vol. i. p. 210; AiiMANDi, 7//*;;. Milit. 

 firs FJephiins, liv. i. cli. i. p. 2. 



^ Wolf's Life and Adventures, Src, 

 p. 104. 



•* The fossil remains of the Indian 

 elephant have been discovered at Ja- 

 l)alpiir, showino- a height of fifteen 

 feet. — Joiini. Asia'. ,Si>r. livmi. \\. 



