VOL. LXXXIX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 447 



10 to 12 cubits, that is, from 15 to 18 feet high; but added, he could not, with- 

 out the Nabob's permission, bring me the elephant to be examined. Permission 

 was accordingly asked, and granted: I had him measured exactly, and was rather 

 surprized to find he did not exceed JO feet in height. The Company's standard, 

 for serviceable elephants, is 7 feet and upwards, measured at the shoulder, in the 

 same manner as horses are. At the middle of the back, they are considerably 

 higher; the curve or arch of which, particularly in young elephants, makes a 

 difference of several inches. After an elephant has attained his full growth, it is a 

 sure sign of old age when this curve becomes less; and still more so, when the 

 back is flat, or a little depressed. A partial depression of the spine is however no 

 uncommon occurrence, even in very young elephants; and I am convinced it 

 happens from external injury. I have been surprized to see the violence used, in 

 herds of wild elephants just taken, by the large elephants, both male and female, 

 putting the projecting part of the upper jaw, from which the tusks grow out, on 

 the spine of the young ones, and pressing them to the ground, while they roared 

 from pain. 



It has been stated, that the sagacity of the elephant is so great, and his memory 

 so retentive, that when once he has received an injury, or been in bondage, and 

 afterwards escapes, it is not possible, by any art, again to entrap him. Great as 

 my partiality is for this noble animal, whose modes of life and general sagacity 1 

 have had so many opportunities of observing, yet a regard to truth compels me to 

 mention some facts, which contradict that opinion. The following history of an 

 elephant taken by Mr. Leeke*, of Longford Hall, Shropshire, contains many in- 

 teresting particulars on this subject. The elephant was a female, and was taken at 

 first, with a herd of many others, in 1765, by Rajah Kishun Maunick-j-, who, 

 about 6 months after, gave her to Abdoor Rezah, a man of some rank and conse- 

 quence in the district. In 1767, the Rajah sent a force against this Abdoor Rezah, 

 for some refractory conduct, who, in his retreat to the hills, turned her loose into 

 the woods, after having used her above 2 years, as a riding elephant. In Jan. 1770, 

 she was retaken by the Rajah; but, in April, 177 1> she broke loose from her 

 pickets, in a stormy night, and escaped to the hills. On Dec. 25, 1782, she was 

 driven by Mr. Leeke's elephant hunters into a keddahj; and the day following, 

 when Mr. Leeke went to see the herd that had been secured, this elephant was 

 pointed out to him by the hunters, and particularly by a driver who had had charge 

 of her for some time, and well recollected her. They frequently called to her by 

 name; to which she seemed to pay some attention, by immediately looking towards 

 them, when her name, Jugget-Peauree, was repeated; nor did she appear like the 



* He was then the Resident of Tiperah, and took some pains to ascertain the facts here mentioned. — 

 t The Rajah is the principal Zemindar in the province of Tiperah, paying the usual revenue for his 

 lands in the low country ; but in the hills he is an independent sovereign, has the power of life and 



death over his subjects, a mint, and other insignia of sovereignty. % The inclosure in which elephants 



are secured. Vide Asiatic Researches, vol. 3, art. ' ' Method of catching Elephants."— Orig. 



