110 THE ELEPHANT OF INDIA. 



collection of Petersburgh possesses a skeleton 

 fourteen feet high, and one or two are recorded 

 of thirteen feet and a half. The young animal 

 grows very rapidly at first ; by the second year 

 it has reached a height of four feet ; after this 

 period, it increases more slowly, till it has reached 

 twenty or twenty-two years. They are suckled 

 for two years ; and, in a wild state, the young 

 run for suck indiscriminately to any female without 

 regard to the mother, and thus the cry of distress 

 from any of the young, generally arouses the 

 herd. The tusks are shed about the twelfth or 

 thirteenth year. The cheek teeth appear about 

 six or seven weeks after birth. 



Like other animals, the Elephant is subject 

 to variation. Difference of the general colour 

 is frequently seen, and some of a reddish hue 

 are met with ; but this has been attributed to 

 adventitious matter received upon the skin by 

 rubbing, though, as a variety, it is still asserted by 

 some to exist naturally. A similar kind is found . 

 in Africa. But the white Elephant, occasioned 

 by albynism, is the most valuable, held even in 

 veneration, and always brings a most extravagant 

 price. The different direction of the tusks has 

 also given rise to different names : of those the 

 most esteemed have the tusks nearly horizontal, 

 and by the native princes they are frequently 

 grnamented, and bear trinkets suspended. 



