388 



ORDEK PACHYDERMATA. FAMILY Proboscidiana. 



THE INDIAN ELEPHANT. (Elephas Inditus, Cuv.) 



The biography of the elephant involves so many details of 

 its peculiar structure j its faculties ; its habits in a state of 

 nature - } the several modes adopted for its capture j its docility 

 and tractability in servitude ; its antiquarian history as regards 

 the Roman Amphitheatre, sculpture in ivory, and geology ; and 

 the extensive commerce at present carried on in its tusks, that 

 a whole volume has been written of nearly four hundred pages 

 solely treating of this animal.* Therefore it cannot be expected 

 that I should enter into details which would occupy the re- 



* I allude to the excellent history of the elephant, which forms the second 

 volume of that portion of the Library of Entertaining Knowledge, entitled 

 The Mencgeries (1831). 



