ELEPHANT. 6\51 



SECTION HI. 



Elephant; with a Description of the Elephant Hunt. 



Elephas maximus. Linn. 



This is the only known species of the genus : it is the largest of 

 quadrupeds, sometimes weighing four thousand five hundred 

 pounds ; body cinereous, seldom reddish or white, thinly set with 

 hairs; proboscis fiat beneath, tip truncate] eyes small; tusks, 

 which are only in the upper jaw, far extended beyond the mouth, 

 resembling horns, marked with curled fibres, constituting the ivory 

 of the shops, and sometimes weighing a hundred and fifty pounds 

 each ; ears large, pendulous, dentate ; skin thick, callous, impe- 

 netrable by musket balls, and yet sensible of the sting of flies ; 

 teats two, near the breast ; knees flexible; neck short; hoofs five 

 on each fore-foot, four on each hind-foot. 



Some writers have made the sukotyro a second species of the ele- 

 phant, but incorrectly. He has a distinguishing property that ought 

 to constitute him a distinct genus. 



The elephant inhabits the torrid zone, in swampy places, and by 

 the sides of rivers j; feeds on the leaves and branches of young 

 trees, particularly plaintains, eating even the wood; devours grain 

 voraciously ; is gregarious, docile, long-lived, and sagacious, 

 though the brain is small ; hereby confuting the doctrine of those 

 philosophers, who contend that the intellect possessed depends upon 

 the size of the brain compared with the size of the animal ; drawing 

 their doctrine from the human form and human brain alone. 



The proboscis is long, extensile, contractile ; furnished at the 

 end with a hook, serving the purpose of a hand, with which it takes 

 its food and drink ; and which being cut off, the animal perishes. 

 He is afraid of mice, lest when he sleeps they should creep into his 

 trachea; urines backwards ; copulates like other quadrupeds. The 

 female is gravid a year ; the young suck the mother with their lips. 

 Carries houses on his back, his guider sitting upon the neck ; moves 

 quickly ; swims dextrously ; is armed for war by the natives of 

 India; and was formerly armed by the Romans with scythes. The 

 contrivances for taking wild elephants are various : the two most 

 common are decoying them into places of security by means of fe- 

 male elephants properly instructed ; and hunting or rather fright- 



