338 ON THE 



the dog ; and can be taught to perform actions 

 which appear to require the human intellect to 

 comprehend. 



In confirmation of his great magnitude, an 

 Elephant of the largest size has been known to 

 exceed seventeen feet in length, from the crown 

 of the head to the tail ; fifteen feet in height from 

 the arch of the back to the soles of the feet ; six 

 feet in the circumference of his legs ; and to 

 weigh more than ten thousand pounds. But the 

 common averaged proportion of the Elephants 

 \vhich have been seen in this country, may be 

 taken at about one third of the above dimensions 

 and weight, and even this implies a vast degree 

 of animal bulk. 



His skin is commonly a brownish grey, or 

 tawney, but in the animal we have recently 

 witnessed, it was a dark brown nearly approach- 

 ing to black, It is throughout extremely 

 wrinkled and knotty, full of deep furrows resem- 

 bling the back of an old oak tree, and appears at 

 first sight to be altogether naked ; hut upon a 

 closer examination it is found to be thinly covered 

 with short hair Its texture is unusually dense 

 and thick, and so resisting, as often to be impe- 

 netrable to the largest sized musket ball, and yet 

 indued with so much sensibility, that the small- 

 est insect upon it occasions the greatest un- 

 easiness. 



His head appears, at the upper part, to be 



