THE ELEPHANT. 61 



by Ariftotle, and afterwards repeated by natu- 

 ral ifts and travellers, is probably falfe, or, at leaft, 

 not exactly related. M. de Buffy denies that the 

 elephant utters any cry through the trunk. How- 

 ever, as a man, by (hutting his mouth clofe, can 

 make a found through his nofe, the elephant, 

 whofe nofe is fo large, may produce founds in 

 the fame manner. But, however this may be, 

 the cry of the elephant is heard at the diftance 

 of more than a league, and yet it excites not 

 terror, like the roaring of the lion or tiger. 



The elephant is ftill more lingular in the 

 ftructure of his feet, and the texture of his fkin, 

 which iaft is not, like other quadrupeds, covered 

 with hair, but totally bare, as if it were fhaven. 

 There are only a few brinies In the fiiTures of 

 the fkin, and thefe brinies are thinly fcattered 

 over the body, but very numerous on the cilia 

 and back of the head * in the auditory paiTages, 

 and the infides of the thighs and legs. In the 

 epidermis, or fcarf (kin, there are two kinds of 

 wrinkles, the one raifed, and the other depreiTed, 

 which give, it the appearance of being cut into 

 fiiTures, refembling pretty nearly the bark of an 

 old oak tree. In man, and the other animals, 



the 



qucmadxnodum cum homo fimul et fpirltum reddit et loquitur, 

 at per uares iimile tubarum raucitati fonat ; /irijl. hiji. anim. 

 lib. 4. cap. 9— Citra nares ore ipfo fternutamento fimilem edit 

 fonum ; per narcs autem tubarum raucitati ; Plln. kift. nat. 

 lib. 8. 



* Memoires pour fervir a l'Hilloire des animaux, part. 3. 



p. 113. 



