THE AFRICAN ELEPHANT. ' 435 



less series of generations, a servitude of many centuries has 

 modiiied his physical and moral type ; but the elephant, whom, 

 in spite of his prodigious powers, we train to an equal 

 obedience, is always originally the free-born son of the forest 

 (for he never propagates in a state of captivity), and is often 

 advanced in years before being obliged to change the indepen- 

 dence of the woods for the yoke of thraldom. What services 

 might not be expected from so gifted an animal were we able 

 to educate the species as we do the individual ? 



The elephant inhabits both Asia and Africa, but each of these 

 two parts of the world has its peculiar species. The African 

 elephant is distinguished by the lozenge-shaped prominences of 

 ivory and enamel on the surface of his grinders, which in the 

 Indian elephant are narrow transverse parts of uniform breadth; 

 his skull has a more rounded form, and is deficient in the 

 double lateral bump conspicuous in the former; and he has 

 only fifty-four vertebrae, while the Indian has sixty-one. On the 

 other hand, he possesses twenty-one ribs, while the latter has 

 only nineteen. His tusks are also much larger, and his body 

 is of much greater bulk, as the female attains the stature of the 

 full-grown Indian male. The ear is at least three times the 

 size, being not seldom above four feet long and broad, so that 

 Dr. Livingstone mentions having seen a negro who under 

 cover of one of these prodigious flaps effectually screened 

 himself from the rain. 



The African elephant has a very wide range, from Caflfraria to 

 Nubia, and from the Zambesi to Cape Verde, and the impene- 

 trable deserts of the Sahara alone prevent him from wandering 

 to the shores of the Mediterranean. Although in South Africa 

 the persecutions of the natives, and of his still more formidable 

 enemies — the colonists and English huntsmen, have consider- 

 ably thinned his numbers, and driven him farther and fartlier 

 to the north, yet in the interior of the country he is still met 

 with in prodigious numbers. Dr. Barth frequently saw large 

 herds winding through the open plains, and swimming in 

 majestic lines through the rivers with elevated trunks, or 

 bathing in the shallow lakes for coolness or protection against 

 insects. 



Dr. Livingstone gives us many interesting accounts of South 

 African elephant-hunting. The Banijai on the south bank of 



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