332 THE ELEPHANT. 



to increase our surprise, when we consider the 

 various advantages it derives from so clumsy a 

 conformation. 



The elephant is seen from seven to no less than 

 fifteen feet high. Whatever care we take to ima- 

 gine a large animal beforehand, yet the first sight 

 of this huge creature never fails to strike us with 

 astonishment, and in some measure to exceed our 

 idea. Having been used to smaller animals, we 

 have scarcely any conception of its magnitude ; 

 for a moving column of flesh, fourteen feet high, 

 is an object so utterly different from those we 

 are constantly presented with, that to be con- 

 ceived it must be actually seen. Such, T own, 

 were the suggestions that naturally arose to me 

 when I first saw this animal, and yet for the sight 

 of which I had taken care to prepare my imagi- 

 nation. I found my ideas fall as short of its real 

 size as they did of its real figure ; neither the 

 pictures I had seen, nor the descriptions I had 

 read, giving me adequate conceptions of either. 



It would, therefore, be impossible to give an 

 idea of this animal's figure by a description, 

 which, even assisted by the art of the engraver, 

 will but confusedly represent the original. In 

 general it may be observed, that the forehead is 

 very high and rising, the ears very large and de- 

 pendent, the eyes extremely small, the proboscis, 

 or trunk, long, the body round and full, the back 

 rising in an arch, and the whole animal short in 

 proportion to its height. The feet are round at 

 the bottom ; on each foot there are five flat horny 

 risings, which seem to be the extremities of the 



