446 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [ANNO 17QQ. 



elephants vary greatly in size, and as males are generally much taller than females, 

 we must conclude they either grow faster, or are longer in attaining their full 

 growth*. But it may be safely asserted, that elephants, like most quadrupeds, 

 propagate their species before they have acquired their full growth. Many females 

 have been known, when taken while pregnant, to have grown several inches 

 higher before delivery; and, as it has been stated, that the female elephant on 

 which my observations were made, could not exceed l6 years when she received the 

 male, it is probable the wild female elephants are in heat before that period. 



If from the above data, it may be allowed to form a probable conjecture, 

 elephants attain their full size between ] 8 and 24 years of age. The height of 

 the elephant, I believe, has been generally much exaggerated. In India, the height 

 of females is, in general, from 7 to 8 feet; and that of males, from 8 to 10 feet, 

 measured at the shoulder. I have never heard of more than one elephant, on 

 good authority, that much exceeded 10 feet: this was a male, belonging to Asoph 

 ul Dowlah, the late vizier of Oude. His dimensions, as communicated by Mr. 

 Cherry, then resident at Lucknow, were as follow, measured on the 1 8th of June, 

 1796: from foot to foot, over the shoulder 22 feet 10^ inches. From the top of 

 the shoulder, perpendicular height 10 feet 6 inches. From the top of the head, 

 when set up, as he ought to march in state 12 feet 2 inches. From the front of 

 the face to the insertion of the tail 15 feet 11 inches. 



Capt. Sandys, of the Bengal establishment, showed me a list of about 150 

 elephants, of which he had the management during the late war with Tippoo Sul- 

 taun, in Mysore, and not one of them was 10 feet, and only a few males Q-l. I 

 was very particular in ascertaining the height of the elephants employed at Madras, 

 and with the army under Marquis Cornwallis, where there were both Ceylon and 

 Bengal elephants; and I have been assured, that those of Ceylon were neither 

 higher, nor superior, in any respect, to those of Bengal; and some officers assert, 

 that they were considerably inferior, in point of utility. The Madras elephants 

 have been said to be from 17 to 20 feet high ; but, to show how much the natives 

 of India are inclined to the marvellous, and how liable Europeans themselves are to 

 mistakes, I will relate a circumstance that happened to myself. 



Having heard, from several gentlemen who had been at Dacca, that the Nabob 

 there had an elephant about 14 feet high, I was desirous to measure him; 

 especially as I had seen him often myself, during the year 1785, and then supposed 

 him to be above 12 feet. After being at Tiperah, and having seen many elephants 

 caught, in the years 1786, 1787, and 1788, and finding all of them much in- 

 ferior in height to what I supposed the Nabob's elephant, I went to Dacca in 1789, 

 determined to see this huge animal measured. At first, I sent for the mahote or 

 driver, to ask some questions concerning this elephant; he assured me he was from 



* A male elephant, belonging to the Cudwah Rajah till he was above 20 years of age, continued to 

 increase in height, and was supposed not to have attained his full size, when I left Tiperah : he was 

 then about 22 years old. — Orig. 



