120 



MAMMALIA ORDER VLUNGULATA. 



may be passed over here ; but as much misapprehension obtains as to the 

 height attained by the animal, a somewhat full notice may be given. 



With all his large experience of Indian elephants, the late Mr. Sanderson, 

 in his "Thirteen Years among the Wild Beasts of India," stated that the 

 largest male he had at that time ever seen measured 9 feet 10 inches at the 

 shoulder ; while two others with which he was acquainted touched 9 feet 8 

 inches. He adds, " There is little doubt that there is not an elephant 10 feet 

 at the shoulder in India." Next comes Sir Samuel Baker, who, after men- 

 tioning in "Wild Beasts and their Ways" that the well-known African 

 elephant " Jumbo" measured 11 feet at the shoulder, and weighed 6 tons, 



declared that no Indian ele- 

 phant approaches these dimen- 

 sions. It is further set down 

 in the same book that " 9 feet 

 at the highest portion of the 

 back is a good height for an 

 Indian male, and 8 feet for the 

 female, although occasionally 

 they are considerably larger. 

 There are hardly any elephants 

 that measure 10 feet in a direct 

 perpendicular." Later on Mr. 

 Sanderson was forced to admit 

 that his statement as to there 

 being no elephants of 10 feet 

 in height in India required 

 modification, for he himself 

 subsequently measured a male 



standing 10 feet 7J inches. Those dimensions are, however, reported by 

 Colonel D. Hamilton to have been exceeded in a male killed in 1863 

 by the late Sir Victor Brooke, of which the height is given as 11 feet, 

 or the same as that of "Jumbo." Moriom Kelaart, whose observations 

 are generally most trustworthy, records having seen an elephant in Ceylon 

 of upwards of 12 feet in height. That such a stature may occasionally 

 be reached by a few giants of the tribe seems to be supported by an 

 enormous skeleton of a tusker mounted in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, 

 which, as now articulated, stands 11 feet 3 inches at the shoulder, thus 

 indicating a height of about 12 feet when in the flesh. This skeleton is 

 believed to have belonged to the tusker of a small herd that haunted the 

 district to the north of the Raniganj Coal Field from Soory and the southern 

 spurs of the Rajmehal Hills to Jamtara. In our opinion this skeleton is cor- 

 rectly mounted, so that its height would appear to be truly 12 feet, although 

 it has been stated that the thigh bone is not perceptibly larger than one be- 

 longing to an elephant known to have been less than 10 feet in height. The 

 elephant of 10 feet 7| inches measured by Mr. Sanderson is, however, still 

 the tallest actually known with absolute certainty ; although we by no means 

 venture to assert that Colonel Hamilton's estimate of the height of the one 

 shot by Sir Victor Brooke may not be perfectly accurate. Be this as it may, 

 it is certain that the Indian elephant is, on the average, a considerably smaller 

 animal than its African cousin ; and individuals attaining a height of even 10 

 feet are so rare that each case is deserving of record. That elephants vastly 

 exceeding 10 feet in height formerly lived in India is proved by the occurrence 



ig, 66. INDIAN ELEPHANT. 



