ANIMALS. iGO 



OX, and its tusks pretty well grown ; and that it continues in this 

 manner, for near thirty years, advancing to maturity. All this 

 is doubtful ; but it is certain that, in order to recruit the numbers 

 which are consumed in war, the princes of the East are every 

 year obliged to send into the forests, and to use various methods 

 to procure a fresh supply. Of all these numerous bands, there 

 is not one that has not been originally wild ; nor one that has 

 not been forced into a state of subjection. Men themselves are 

 often content to propagate a race of slaves, that pass down in 

 this wretched state through successive generations : but the 

 elephant, under subjection, is unalterably barren ; perhaps from 

 some physical causes, which are as yet unknown.* 



The Indian princes having vainly endeavoured to multiply the 



* Ou this point Goldsmith was misinformed, for ^lian asserts, tliat ele- 

 phants wore bred at Rome ; and Columella, a writer on rural affairs, dis- 

 tinctly says, "within our own walls (Rome) we have seen elephants born." 

 In India it was thought unlucky to allow tame elephants to breed; but the 

 Emperor Akber overcame that scruple. The custom, however, evidently 

 went into disuse ; for Tavernier, and other oriental travellers, were not 

 only ignorant of the fact, but expressly asserted that the circumstance never 

 took place. Upon this inaccurate information many writers on natural his- 

 tory founded a theory that the proud elephant refused to multiply slaves for 

 the use of man. The experiments of Mr Corse have, however, completely 

 Bet this question at rest ; and thoug'h it is probable, as long as elephants are 

 sufficiently numerous to be taken in herds, that the greater expense of 

 breeding them will discourage any attempts to continue the species under 

 the direction of man, there is no doubt, if it were desirable, that the elephant 

 might be improved in size, strength, and activity, exactly in the same man- 

 ner that the horse of England has been rendered so superior in power and 

 swiftness to the horse in a state of nature, by a judicious intermixture of 

 various races. 



The ordinary period of gestation in the elephant is twenty months and 

 eighteen days. This point has been established by the observations of Mr 

 Corse. The yoimg elephant at its birth is about thirty-five inches high. In 

 the first year he grows about eleven inches; in the second eight; in the 

 third six ; in the fourth fi\e ; in the fifth five ; iu the si.xth tluce and a half; 

 and in the seventh two and a half Mr Corse thinks that elephants attain 

 their full size between eighteen and twenty-foiu- years of age ; though other 

 writers, reasoning from the duration of life, believe that the animal ctm- 

 tinues to increase in size, when iu a state of nature, for nearly double that 

 period. 



Mr Ranking, who was resident many years in Hindostan, " saw an ele. 

 phant in Bengal when it was only eighteen hours old. It was about thij-ty- 

 three inches high, weak and tottering, but very playfid, twisting iu its 

 proboscis a few blades of large grass." That the young elephant sucks 

 with its mouth is now distinctly ascertained. Mr Corse's account of the 

 actual process is the most precise which we have met with. " The young 



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