1 88 HISTORY OF QUADRUPEDS. 



capable of great expression. He turns them slowly, 

 and with , gentleness, towards his master. When 

 he speaks, the animal regards him with an eye of 

 mildness and attention. His ears are very large, 

 and much longer, in proportion to his body, than 

 those of the Ass : they lie flat on the head, and 

 are commonly pendulous ; but he can raise and 

 move them with great facility, and frequently uses 

 them as a fan to cool himself, or defend his eyes from 

 dust and insects. His hearing is likewise remark- 

 ably fine ; for he delights in the sound of musical 

 instruments, and moves in cadence to the trumpet 

 and tabor. Their are four grinders in each jaw, 

 closely united together, forming with the jaw-bone, 

 one hard and compact body. One of these grinders 

 sometimes measures nine inches broad, and weighs 

 four pounds and a half. The texture of the skin is 

 uneven, wrinkled and knotty ; full of deep fissures, 

 nearly resembling the bark of an oak tree, which 

 run in all directions over its surface. It is of a 

 tawny colour, inclining to citron. In the fissures 

 there are some bristly hairs, which are also thinly 

 scattered over the body. The legs resemble massy 

 columns, of fifteen or eighteen inches diameter, and 

 from five to six feet high. The foot is short, and 

 divided into five toes, covered by the skin, so as not 

 to be visible. To each toe there is aifixed a nail or 

 hoof, of a horny substance. 



The most remarkable feature of the Elephant is 

 his trunk or proboscis, which is composed of mem- 

 branes, nerves, and muscles. It is an organ both 

 of feeling and of motion. The animal can not only 

 move and bend it, but can contract, lengthen, and 

 turn it in every direction. The extremity of the 

 trunk terminates in a protuberance, which stretches 



