300 THE ELEPHANT. [Part VIII. 



in Burmali, in Siam, and Ceylon, the districts in wliicli 

 the elephants most abound, are all hilly and mountainous. 

 In the latter, especially, there is not a range so elevated 

 as to be inaccessible to them. On the very summit of 

 Adam's Peak, at an altitude of 7,420 feet, and on a 

 pinnacle which the pilgrims chmb with difficulty, by 

 means of steps he^\"n in the rock, Major Skinner, in 1840, 

 found the spoor of an elephant. 



Prior to 1840, and before coffee-plantations had been 

 extensively opened in the Kandyan ranges, there was 

 not a mountain or a lofty feature of land in Ceylon 

 which they had not traversed, in then- periodical migra- 

 tions in search of water ; and the sagacity wliich they 

 display in " laying out roads " is almost incredible. 

 They generally keep along the backbone of a chain of 

 hills, avoiding steep gradients ; and one curious obser- 

 vation was not lost upon the government surveyors, 

 that in crossing the valleys from ridge to ridge, through 

 forests so dense as altogether to obstruct a distant view, 

 the elephants invariably select the line of march which 

 communicates most judiciously with the opposite point, 

 by means of the safest forcV So siure-footed are they, 

 that there are few places where man can go that an 

 elephant cannot follow, provided there be space to admit 

 his bulk, and sohdity to sustain his we'ght. 



This faculty is almost entirely derived fi^om the 

 unusual position, as compared Avith other quach'upeds, 

 of the knee jomt of the hind leg ; arising from the 

 superior length of the thigh-bone, and the shortness of 

 the metatarsus : the heel being almost where it projects 

 in man, instead of being hfted up as a " hock." It is 

 this which enables him, in descending decUvities, to de- 

 press and adjust the weight of his hinder portions, which 



' Dr. Hooker, in describing tlie 1 " the elephant's path is an excellent 



ascent of the Himalayas, says, the 

 natives in making their paths despise 

 all zigzags, and nm in straight lines 

 up the steepest hUl faces; whilst 



specimen of engineering — the oppo- 

 site of the native track, — for it wands 

 j udiciously. ' ' — Himalayan Journal, 

 vol. i. eh. iv. 



