224 ANECDOTES OF ANIMALS. 



weapons as these, aptly called defenses by the French, 

 they are able to uproot enormous trees, and catching 

 their heaviest foes upon them, hurl them to the ground, 

 or transfix them so as never to rise again. The ears 

 are large, and hang flapping over the shoulders, and 

 are very sensible to the touch. The hearing seems to 

 be much more alive to grave than to acute sounds. 



Four ungraceful, stiff columns for legs support the 

 clumsy body. On each fore-foot there are five toes, 

 and on each hind-foot four ; each toe should show a 

 hoof, but sometimes the skin envelopes and conceals 

 them. The sole is nearly round ; and the skin of a foot 

 exhibited by Mr. Gordon Gumming is so large, that 

 a child of three years of age could easily seat itself 

 within it. The tail is small in circumference, flattened 

 tit the end, and has thick stiff bristles at the extremity. 

 These tails are sometimes used as whips ; and at the 

 court of Ashanti, when decorated with gold, they form 

 part of the insignia of the court. The skin is generally 

 dark coloured and rough, having a few scattered hairs 

 upon it. Proofs, however, have been found that a race 

 of elephants thickly covered with hair once existed. 

 White elephants are occasionally met with, and it has 

 been asserted that they are worshipped. Others have 

 contradicted this, and declare that they are only kept 

 as a piece of royal state. 



The usual height of elephants is from nine to ten 

 feet, but many have been known to attain fourteen. 

 The skeleton of that sent to the Czar Peter by the King 

 of Persia, and which is seen in the museum at St. 

 Petersburg!!, is sixteen and a half, and there are records 

 of elephants attaining the enormous height of twenty 

 feet. When we think of the mountainous animals, as I 



