AFRICAN HERDS. 451 



height, and terminating in a kind of double pyramid. His hide is a 

 clear brown colour. This species includes several varieties ; that of 

 Indo-China is remarkable for its prodigious height, which sometimes 

 attains fifteen feet, and for a skin marked with brown spots upon a 

 clear gray ground. The islands of the Indian Archipelago likewise 

 contain several varieties of elephants, which experts can easily distin- 

 guish from one another. In every species are found the albinos, or 

 white elephants, which receive the marked veneration of every Indian 

 race, and particularly of those of Siam and Pegu. 



The African Elephant (Elephas Africanus) differs from the pre- 

 ceding in the structure of his grinder teeth, in the length of his tusks, 

 which are enormous, and in his ears, whose trumpet is also of great 

 dimensions. He was formerly met with throughout all the African 

 continent, and was much employed in war by the Carthaginians and 

 Egyptians. From the northern regions of Africa he has now disap- 

 peared, but large herds still haunt the whole southern division, from 

 the Senegal to the Cape, and the eastern districts, as far north as 

 Abyssinia. He is also found in all the African interior, whose 

 inhabitants deal in ivory as the staple of their commerce. His height 

 is equal to that of the Asiatic elephant, and the habits of the two 

 species are identical 



Elephants live in the forests, gathering in troops of from thirty 

 to about one hundred individuals, and as they require a very exten- 

 sive area of pasturage, it is said that they pitilessly expel from their 

 domains all other animals which trespass therein to share the product. 



Each herd marches under the guidance of an acknowledged chief. 

 When they sally forth from their retreats to devastate a field, or to 

 wander in quest of fresh pastures, they observe a very regular order 

 of march ; the young and the females occupying the centre, the males 

 assemble round them in a circle. If danger threatens, the little ones 

 take refuge under the breast of their mothers, who fold their trunks 

 about them. 



The young elephant is suckled for two years, and during that 

 period attains the stature of four feet and a half. At the end of the 



