GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS. 



27 



gular opening of the mouth, from which emerge 

 two huge tusks embracing the root of the 

 trunk. These tusks are much longer and 

 stronger in the male than in the female. The 

 root of the trunk represents, so to speak, the 

 upper lip, the side parts of which alone are 

 present. The lower lip is triangular, and is 

 drawn out in front into a pendent point. If 

 the trunk is mainly an organ of touch and 

 prehension it serves at the same time as a 

 means of procuring food and as a weapon of 

 defence. The elephant takes hold of its food 

 and carries it to its mouth with its trunk ; when 

 it wishes to drink it fills the trunk with water, 

 which it then squirts into its mouth. A 

 good blow with the trunk is enough to break 

 the back-bone of a tiger which might have 

 the audacity to attack this colossus. Lastly, 

 the different sounds which the animal emits 

 by driving air through this wonderful organ 

 express its feelings of joy and pain. 



Behind the short neck with its broad folds 

 of skin comes the huge and thick but com- 

 paratively short body supported by the four 

 clumsy and unshapely columns formed by its 

 legs, which appear to have only one joint in 

 the middle, since the upper arms and the 

 thighs are concealed in the flesh. All the 

 bones of the limbs are present in the skeleton 

 in their full number; but the short and plump 

 bones of the toes and the wrist and ankle are 

 so completely surrounded by sinewy and 

 fibrous masses that the foot has the appear- 

 ance of an enormous pavior's beetle, with a 

 broad, flat, undivided sole. On the front 

 edge of the foot-plate of this beetle, and partly 

 on the upper surface, are found short, rounded, 

 somewhat arched hoofs, which only cover the 

 ends of the toes and are very apt to be lost. 

 With these clod-crushers the elephant tramples 

 to death an antagonist which he has laid low 

 with a blow of his trunk. 



Altogether the elephant creates the impres- 

 sion of a huge clumsy creature imposing by 

 its size, but yet not fitted to inspire the same 

 terror as a large well-armed carnivore. One 



would at once say that with a little adroitness 

 it would be easy to elude this awkward booby. 

 One might find one's self mistaken, however. 



The internal organization of the elephant 

 proves, indeed, the necessity for having a 

 separate order for these creatures, but at the 

 same time reveals many affinities with other 

 orders, and especially with those forms of 

 which the large group of the pachyderms was 

 formerly composed. The skull is very high 

 behind, and thus presents a certain resemblance 

 to that of the whales, a resemblance which 

 would be still more marked if the bones of 

 the forehead were not greatly enlarged by 

 enormous cavities separated by leaf-like bony 

 partitions, and communicating with the cavities 

 of the nose. These frontal cavities are so 

 large that they far exceed in size the cavity 

 of the brain-case, and in an adult elephant the 

 external plate of the frontal bone is about half 

 a yard or more distant from the internal plate 

 adjacent to the brain. The hunters know 

 very well that a bullet shot at the forehead 

 never penetrates to the brain, but remains 

 sticking in these cavities, which are lined with 

 a mucous membrane such as that which lines 

 the cavities of the nose. 



The dentition consists of a single incisor in 

 each of the premaxillae and of a huge and 

 very complex molar in each half of each jaw. 

 The premaxilize are, in fact, drawn out into 

 huge tubes whose cavities extend very far 

 back, even to the region beneath the eyes. 

 In these sockets there arises and grows on a 

 conical papilla one incisor on each side, which 

 is at first straight and conical. This incisor 

 is present even in the milk-dentition, and at 

 the shedding of the teeth gives place to a 

 permanent tusk, which on emerging from the 

 socket curves outwards and upwards, goes 

 on growing during the whole of life, and 

 often becomes remarkably large in the males, 

 while in the females it is straighter and less 

 massive. It is from these tusks that ivory 

 is derived. The short, high, deeply grooved 

 lower jaw, thick behind and pointed in front. 



