HISTORY OF THE ELEPHANT. 121 



possible that they do not meet with much food of this kind, 

 but subsist chiefly upon the coarse grasses in the large open- 

 ings, and the leaves and young branches of shrubs and 

 trees. Thy are social and gregarious animals ; and the 

 herds in which they assemble depend, of course, upon the 

 extent and richness of their pastures. The old and young 

 ones associate together without the slightest animosity ; 

 and though it is not ascertained that the numbers of the 

 two sexes are equal, or that they live in pairs, yet they are 

 almost invariably led on by the eldest male and the eldest 

 female, which move in advance, and the others appear 

 implicitly to follow their motions. In India, elephants are 

 most abundant in the thick woods on the left bank of the 

 Ganges, along the Brahmapootra, and in the forest of 

 Chittagong, farther to the east. The places of Bengal, in 

 the immediate neighborhood of the forests on the Ganges, 

 are exceedingly rich, and well adapted to the more valuable 

 products of the Indian soil ; and, therefore, in them, culti- 

 vation is carried closer to the forests than in the less fer- 

 tile parts of the country. The consequence is, th&t ele- 

 phants, though perhaps not so numerous there as in Chit- 

 tagong, are much more frequently seen. The herds also 

 occasionally invade the cultivated fields, eating vast quan- 

 tities of green sugar-canes, rice, bannanas, and other crops, 

 and trampling down and destroying the remainder with 

 their feet. They are also very bold and formidable in 

 their invasions ; and unless the people can rise in sufficient 

 numbers to drive them off, with torches and cannon shot, 

 they must look on and behold the ruin of their fields, until 

 it shall please the elephants to retire. 



The keeping of an elephant is a very expensive matter, 

 the quantity of food required being from one hundred to 

 one hundred and fifty pounds' weight per day. This is, 

 however, the quantity estimated for a full grown elephant 

 in perfect health ; and the small and sickly ones, which 

 are generally in this country, do not require so much food. 



