222 ANECDOTES OF ANIMALS. 



The trunk, of which I have just spoken, is formed 

 of numberless muscular fibres, amounting to at least 

 40,000, which take various directions, and cross each 

 other in so many ways that the whole forms one of the 

 most flexible organs that can be conceived. It can be 

 contracted, raised, depressed, curbed, turned, or twisted 

 round any object at the will of its possessor ; and can 

 lay hold of and pick up the most minute and the 

 thinnest substance, aided in such instances by the pro- 

 longation of its upper edge into what is called a finger, 

 which protects the nostrils, and acts as a feeler. This 

 trunk serves as a reservoir for holding liquid, which can 

 be put in the mouth at pleasure by inserting the end 

 between the jaws ; or for retaining it as long as may be 

 wished, when it is discharged over any object whirh the 

 elephant desires to inundate. He occasionally pours it 

 upon his own body, thereby not only cooling and re- 

 freshing himself, but getting rid of the numerous insects 

 which lodge themselves in his hide. The trumpet-like 

 noise for which elephants are remarkable proceeds from 

 their trunk ; and it serves in other ways to express their 

 feelings, for with it they bestow their caresses. A 

 tame elephant, in the Jardin des Plantes, took a great 

 fancy to a little girl who used to walk in the menagerie 

 every morning with her nurse before it was open to 

 the public. It constantly happened that she and the 

 elephant would meet together ; and not only was his care 

 to avoid trampling upon her most excessive, but if she 

 were going the same way, he would gently insinuate the 

 end of his proboscis under her arm, lovingly rest it 

 there, and walk by her side. Great pains are taken by 

 these animals to guard their trunks from injury; and 

 they constantly raise them as high in the air as they 



