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we come to examine them, they are seen to exhibit a 

 variety of expression. It turns them with attention 

 and friendship to its master ; it seems to reflect and 

 deliberate; and as its passions slowly succeed each 

 other, their various workings are distinctly seen. It 

 is remarkable for the excellence of its hearing : its 

 ears are extremely large, they are usually dependent, 

 but it can readily raise and move them : they serve also 

 to wipe its eyes, and to protect them against the dust 

 and flies. It appears delighted with music, and readily 

 learns to beat time, to move in measure, and even to 

 join its voice with the drum and trumpet. 



This animal's sense of smelling is not only exquisite, 

 but it is pleased with the same odours that delight man- 

 kind. The elephant gathers flowers with great plea- 

 sure; it picks them up one by one, unites them in a 

 nosegay, and seems charmed with the perfume. The 

 orange flower is particularly grateful, both to its taste 

 and smell ; it strips the tree of all its verdure, and eats 

 every part of it, even to the branches themselves. It 

 seeks in the meadows the most odoriferous plants to 

 feed upon, and in the woods it prefers the coco, the 

 banana, the palm, and the sage tree to all others. 



But it is in the sense of feeling that this animal ex- 

 cels all others of the brute creation, and perhaps man 

 himself. The organ of this sense is wholly in the 

 trunk, which is an instrument peculiar to this animal, 

 and tiiat serves it for all the purposes of a hand. The 

 trunk ends in two openings, or nostrils, like those of 

 a hog. An elephant of fourteen feet high has the trunk 

 about three feet long, and five feet and a half in cir- 

 cumference, at the mouth. It is hollow all along, but 

 with a partition running from one end of it to the 

 other. This tube is composed of nerves and muscles 

 covered with a skin like that of the rest of the body. It 

 is capable of being moved in every direction, of being 

 lengthened and shortened, of being bent or straight, 

 ened ; so pliant as to embrace any body it is applied 

 to, and yet so strong that nothing can be torn from 

 its gripe. To aid the force of this grasp, there arc 



