82 THE ELEPHANT. 



tufks and bones which have been attributed to 

 the mammouth. 1 acknowledge that I was long 

 doubtful with regard to this point. 1 had often 

 compared thefe enormous bones with the fkele- 

 ton of nearly a full grown elephant preferved in 

 the Royal Cabinet : And, as before compofing 

 their hiflory, I could not perfuade my ("elf that 

 there exifled elephants fix or feven times larger 

 than the one whole fkelcton I had fo often ex- 

 amined, and, as the large bones had not the 

 fame proportions with the correfponding bones 

 cf the elephant, I believed, with the generality 

 of naturalifts, that thefe huge bones belonged to 

 a much larger animal, the fpecies of which had 

 been loft or annihilated. But it is certain, from 

 the fads formerly mentioned, that there are ele- 

 phants fourteen feet high, and, confequentiy, 

 (as the mafles are as the cubes of the height), fix 

 or feven times larger than that whole fkeleton 

 is in the Royal Cabinet, and which was not a- 

 bove feven, or feven and a half feet high. It is 

 likewife certain, that age changes the propor- 

 tions of bones, and that adult animals grow con-, 

 fiderably thicker, though their ftature does not 

 increafe. In fine, it is certain, from the teftimo- 

 nies of travellers, that there are elephants tufks, 

 each of which weighs more than a hundred and 

 twenty pounds *. From all thefe fads, it is ap- 

 parent, 



* Mr Eden informs us, that he meafured feveral elephants 

 tufks, which he found to be nine feet long ; that others were 



as 



