4;U THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



they may prove of great assistance in digging up roots, but 

 that they are far from indispensable is proved by their being 

 but rarely seen in tlie females, and by their almost constant 

 absence in the Ceylon elephant, where they are generally found 

 reduced to mere stunted processes. 



The elephants live in herds, usually consisting of from ten 

 to twenty individuals, and each herd is a family, not brought 

 together by accident or attachment, but owning a common line- 

 age and relationship. In the forest several herds will browse 

 in close contiguity, and in their expeditions in search of water 

 they may form a body of possibly one or two hundred, but on 

 the slightest disturbance, each distinct herd hastens to re-form 

 within its own particular circle, and to take measures on its own 

 behalf for retreat or defence. 



Grenerally the most vigorous and courageous of the herd 

 assumes the leadership : his orders are observed with the most 

 implicit obedience, and the devotion and loyalty evinced by his 

 followers are very remarkable. In Ceylon this is more readily 

 seen in the case of a tusker than in any other, because in a 

 herd he is generally the object of the keenest pursuit by the 

 hunters. On such occasions the elephants do their utmost to 

 protect him from danger ; when driven to extremity, they place 

 the leader in the centre, and crowd so eagerly in front of him 

 that the sportsmen have to shoot a number which they might 

 otherwise have spared. 



When individuals have been expelled from a herd, or by some 

 accident have lost their former associates, they are not per- 

 mitted to attach themselves to any other family, and ever after 

 wander about the woods as outcasts from their kind. Eendered 

 morose and savage from rage and solitude, they not only com- 

 mit great injuries in the plantations, trampling down the rice- 

 grounds, and tearing up the trees, but even travellers are ex- 

 posed to the utmost risk from their unprovoked assaults. 



As the elephant surpasses all other land animals in strength 

 and weight, his mental faculties also assign to him one of the 

 first places in the animal creation. His docility, his attach- 

 ment to his master, his ready obedience, are qualities in which 

 he is scarcely inferior to the dog, and it is astonishing how 

 easily he suffers himself to be led by his puny guide. 



The dog has been the companion of man through an end- 



