ELEPHANT— aENERAL INTELLIGENCE. 401 



obliged to congregate in large numbers where water is 

 to be obtained. Being stationed near a water supply, and 

 knowing that a large herd of elephants were in the neigh- 

 bourhood, Major Skinner resolved to watch their pro- 

 ceedings. On a moonlight night, therefore, he 



-climbed a tree about four himdred yards from the water, and 

 waited patiently for two hours before he heard or saw anything 

 of the elephants. At length he saw a huge beast issue from 

 the wood, and advance cautiously across the open ground to 

 within a hundred yards of the tank, where he stood perfectly 

 motionless ; and the rest of the herd, meanwhile, were so quiet 

 that not the least sound was to be heard from them. Gradu- 

 ally, at three successive advances, halting some minutes after 

 -each, he moved up to the water's edge, in which, however, he did 

 not think proper to quench his thirst, but remained for several 

 •minutes Hstening in perfect stillness. He then returned cau- 

 tiously and slowly to the point at which he had issued from 

 the wood, from whence he came back with five other elephants, 

 with which he proceeded, somewhat less slowly than before, to 

 within a few yards of the tank, where he posted them as 

 patrols. He then re-entered the wood and collected the whole 

 herd, which must have amounted to between eighty and a 

 hundred, and led them across the open ground with the most 

 extraordinary composure and quiet till they came up to the five 

 -sentinels, when he left them for a moment, and again made a 

 reconnaissance at the edge of the tank. At last, being appa- 

 Tently satisfied that all was safe, he turned back, and obviously 

 ^ave the order to advance ; ' for in a moment,' says Major 

 ;Skinner, ' the whole herd rushed to the water with a degree of 

 imreserved confidence so opposite to the caution and timidity 

 which had marked their previous movements, that nothing will 

 ever persuade me that there was not rational and preconcerted 

 co-operation throughout the whole party, and a degree of 

 responsible authority exercised by the patriarch-leader.' ^ 



Mr. H. L. Jenkins writes to me : — 



What I particularly wish to observe is that there are good 

 reasons for supposing that elephants possess abstract ideas ; for 

 instance, I think it is impossible to doubt that they acquire 

 through their own experience notions of hardness and weight, 

 .and the grounds on which I am led to think this are as follows. 



1 See his letter to Sir E. Tennent in Nat. Hist, of C&ylon, pp. 

 118-20. 



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