ELEPHANT. 



557 



Asiatic ele- 

 phant. 



Elephant. The native country of this species of elephant, is 

 s ~ p ~V* ' Africa. He inhabits the immense forests and dreary 

 wastes of that extensive continent. In modern times 

 few attempts have been made to bring this species into 

 bondage, or to employ him for any useful purpose. 

 Hence it is, that we know less of the manners of this 

 species than of the following, which in the East has 

 long been the slave of man. 



Sp. 2. ELEPHAS Indian. Asiatic elephant. Scull 

 lengthened, forehead concave, enamel of the grinders dis- 

 posed in the form of flattened ovals placed across the tooth; 

 ears large ; horny nails, Jive before and four behind. 



La Menagerie du Museum National d'Histoire Na- 

 turelle, 1801, p. 1, tab. 1, 2. 



The females of this species, and some varieties of the 

 male, have small straight tusks. The ears are small, 

 and often angular. The hide is grey speckled with 

 brown, and sometimes white. The height from eight 

 to twelve feet. 



The elephants in Bengal are divided by the natives 

 into two casts, which they term Koomareah or princely 

 race, and the Merghee or hunting race. The Kooma- 

 reah is a deep-bodied, strong, compact animal, with a 

 large trunk (which is always esteemed a great beauty 

 in an elephant,) legs short, but thick in proportion to 

 the size of the animal. This variety is preferred, as it 

 is of superior strength, can undergo greater fatigue, and 

 carry heavier burdens than the following. An elephant 

 of the Merghee cast, when full grown, is generally taller 

 than the former, but has not so compact a form, his legs 

 are long, he travels fast, has a lighter body, and his 

 trunk is both short and slender in proportion to his 

 height. There appears no predilection in any of these 

 elephants to have exclusive connection with his own 

 particular cast, and hence the mixed breed is held in 

 greater or less estimation, in proportion as it partakes 

 of the qualities of the Koomareah or Merghee cast In 

 some elephants the tusks are large, as in the variety 

 termed the Dauntelah, in which they generally pro- 

 ject forwards, and curve upwards. In the variety 

 termed the Mootrnah, the tusks are very small and 

 straight, and point almost directly downwards. 



An elephant of this species is said to be perfect when 

 his ears are large and rounded, not ragged or indented 

 at the margin ; his eyes of a dark hazle colour, free from 

 specks ; the roof of his mouth and his tongue without 

 dark or black spots of any considerable size ; his trunk 

 large, and his tail long, with a tuft of hair reaching 

 nearly to the ground. There must be five nails on 

 each of his fore feet, and four on each of the hind ones, 

 making eighteen in all ; his head well set on, and car- 

 ried rather high. The arch or curve of his back rising 

 gradually from the shoulder to the middle, and thence 

 descending to the insertion of the tail. 



This species inhabits the continent of Asia, and is 

 found on both sides of the Ganges, in China, and in the 

 larger islands of the Indian Ocean. He has long been 

 brought into a state of subjection to man. His manners 

 we therefore very well known, and have been briefly 

 detailed in the preceding general description. 



-S>. 3. ELEPHAS Primigcnius. Fossil Elephant or 

 Mammoth. Scull lengthened, forehead coni ave, under 

 jaw obtuse, grinders large, parallel prncetses of the ena- 

 mel disposed in closely set ribbands, sockets of the tush 

 very long. 



As many of our readers may be unacquainted -with 

 this species, which it is highly probable no longer exists 

 in a living state on the surface of the globe, we shall 

 subjoin a few remarks illustrative of its history. 



pis"-.. 



In various parts of Europe, from the shores of the Elephant, 

 frozen ocean to the Mediterranean Sea, bones and teeth '*"/' 

 of a large size have, at different times, been dug up. 

 They have been found in alluvial strata of earth, gra- 

 vel, or sand, generally in valleys, near the mouths of 

 large rivers, and likewise in islands, as Iceland and 

 Great Britain. These bones were at first considered 

 as belonging to an extinct race of giants. But, in pro- 

 portion, as the science of natural history was cultivated, 

 such ridiculous fables disappeared, and these bones were 

 considered as belonging to the elephant, at that time 

 supposed to be the largest animal which had ever existed. 

 This was an important step in the investigation of these 

 fossil remains, and little else seemed wanting in their 

 history but to account for the means by which they 

 were brought to their present situation. Had they 

 been found only in those countries, which had been 

 conquered by the arms of the Macedonians, Carthagi- 

 nians, or Romans, it might have been supposed that 

 they had been brought by man to their present situa- 

 tion, since these nations carried along with them a 

 powerful host of trained elephants. But the occurrence 

 of those bones in Iceland, and at the mouths of the ri- 

 vers of Siberia, clearly proved that these relics were 

 not the remains of elephants slain in battle. The in- 

 habitants of Russia invented a much more simple tale, 

 to account for the occurrence of these fossil relics. 

 They supposed them to belong to an animal, in its 

 manners resembling a mole, living under the sur- 

 face of the earth, and unable to endure the light of 

 day. To this subterraneous animal they gave the name 

 of Mammoth. 



Naturalists, finding these explanations merely ac- 

 knowledgments of the difficulty, and still attaching to 

 the idea of elephant a warm region, fancied that these 

 fossil bones belonged to elephants formerly reared 

 in Asia, and afterwards transported by some violent 

 cause to their present situation. The Deluge was in- 

 stantly resorted to, and the elephants browsing on the 

 banks of the Ganges, were supposed to have been 

 transported by the flood from their native haunts, and 

 interred in the plains of Europe. But the high state 

 of preservation of these bones, the situation of nearly en- 

 tire skeletons in beds, formed at different though not 

 remote intervals, and their general distribution over 

 such extensive tracts, forbade the introduction of any 

 torrent to bring them to their present position. 



Had naturalists attended more to an examination of 

 facts, the difficulty here complained of would soon have 

 disappeared, and a rational explanation would have 

 been obtained of so curious a phenomenon. It is to 

 the labours of the illustrious Cuvier that we stand in- 

 debted for the first accurate observations on the sub- 

 ject. Some approaches to the truth had indeed been 

 made by the labours of other anatomists, who had as- 

 certained that the remains of the elephant found in a 

 fossil state bear a closer resemblance to the bones of 

 the Asiatic than to the bones of the African elephant. 

 Hence some were disposed to believe, that these fossil 

 bones had belonged to individuals of tht Asiatic spe- 

 cies. But Cuvier has now clearly proved, that the 

 points of difference are so numerous, that the fossil ele- 

 phant has a title to rank as a distinct species. In the 

 fossil elephant, he ascertained that the teeth are larger 

 in proportion than those belonging to the Asiatic spe- 

 cies ; that the processes of enamel on the surface of the 

 grinders, are not only more numerous, but less festoon- 

 ed ; that the tusks are larger, and more curved ; and 

 that the sockets of the tusks are much more produced. 



