THE ELEPHANT AT HOME. 



IT has fallen to my lot to have lived in daily 

 proximity to the mightiest of our terrestrial 

 mammals ; to have seen from my verandah 

 the great, grey, massive creatures marching 

 solemnly and silently across the hillside within 

 a rifle-shot of one's armchair. This was in 

 Ceylon, before the era of the Suez Canal ; 

 when there was yet no harbour at Colombo, 

 and ships lay at anchor far out in the road- 

 stead ; when railways were there still unheard 

 of, and coffee-planting was at its zenith. 



The Indian elephant is inferior in size to 

 the African species, and is also structurally 

 different in various points. The Ceylon race, 

 again, differs from its Indian neighbours in that 

 the great majority are tuskless, being for the 

 most part provided with a pair of short 'tushes' 

 only, which project but a few inches from the 

 jaw. Ceylon elephants probably average, 

 when full-grown, about eight feet in height at 



Q 241 



