70 STUDIES IN LIFE AND SENSE. 



consistent with the general biological law which holds that the young 

 form exhibits the primitive characters of the race more typically than 

 the adult. In this view of matters, the young elephant is nearer the 

 type of its ancestors than the adult ; and in the young whales the 

 same remark holds good ; since the youthful cetaceans may possess 

 a sparse covering of hairs such as the adults do not exhibit. 



Speaking of the comparative hairlessness of the elephant and 

 rhinoceros, Mr. Darwin remarks that, "as certain extinct species 

 (e.g. mammoth) which formerly lived under an Arctic climate, were 

 covered with hair, it would almost appear as if the existing species of 

 both genera had lost their hairy covering from exposure to heat. 

 This appears the more probable, as the elephants in India which live 

 on elevated and cool districts are more hairy than those on the 

 lowlands." 



The social history and psychology of the elephant race form of 

 themselves topics wide enough to fill a volume. From the earliest 

 cimes, these animals have been enlisted by man in the service of war, 

 or as beasts of burden, as aids in the chase, or even in the brutal and 

 demoralising sports of the ancient arena. The value of ivory in the 

 earliest ages must have given rise to elephant-hunting as a source of 

 gain and profit; and the inroads of man upon the species have 

 naturally caused not merely a limitation in the numbers of these 

 animals, but have likewise served to modify in a very marked fashion 

 their geographical distribution. But the utility of these great animals 

 to man, depends as much upon their docility and tractable nature, as 

 upon their manufacture of ivory. Probably there is no more sagacious 

 animal than a well-trained elephant, and the development of such 

 high instincts as these animals exhibit, may form an additional 

 illustration of the marked influence of association with man in inducing 

 the growth of intelligence and reasoning powers in the animal creation. 

 No one may doubt that the dog, for instance, has benefited to a 

 marked degree from such association with human surroundings ; and 

 that the comparatively low mental powers of many other animals are 

 susceptible of higher development through domestication, is an idea 

 fully supported by all that is known of instances where a wild race, 

 or individual animal of wild habits, has been brought in contact with 

 man. The " learned pigs " and tame hares, are cases in point ; and 

 the relatively low mental powers of many of the apes may be largely 

 attributed to that want of interest in "poor relations" with which 

 humanity, as a body, views the quadrumanous tribes. 



The records of popular natural history teem with examples of the 

 sagacity of elephants; a mental quality which, it may be added, is 

 likely to owe much to the relatively long life, and corresponding 

 opportunities of acquiring experience, which these animals possess : 

 whilst it has been also remarked, that as the elephant, unlike the dog, 



