ORDER VII. PACIIYDERMATA. 279 



like a slianrccnccl skin. Tlie most extraordinary feature of the elephant is the 

 prolonged nose, or proboscis, often called the Innik. Its prehensile power is 

 vcrv ^-reat, as it easily raises immense weights, while, at tiie same time, its 

 sensitiveness is so delicate that it can feel and pick up particles of extreme 

 minuteness. It serves as a hand, by which the animal conveys food and 

 drink to its mouth, and also as a most efficient weapon of defence. Its pro- 

 digious blows stun the tiger, lay open the braiu of the leopard, and appall even 

 the lion, the king of beasts. When enraged, the elephant lashes it violently 

 right and left, and in a circular direction around the head, and woe to tlie 

 man or beast which is within the circle of its sweep. Tlie color of the Indian 

 elephant is brownish-gray, sometimes slightly mottled witli flesh-color, and 

 the skin, which is hard, thick, and wrinkled into folds, near the legs, on the 

 neck and breast, is thinly set with rigid hairs of a similar tint. The tusks 

 are too well known to need any description. 



Tlie general height of the Indian elephant is from eight to ten feet. Mr. 

 Scott, of Stinton, mentions one male as the largest he had iieard of — twelve 

 feet two inches high from the crown of the head to tiie ground, and at the 

 shoulders about ten feet five inches. The length was fifteen feet. The 

 young animal grows very rapidly at first ; by the second year it has reached 

 a height of four feet ; after this period it increases more slowly, till it has 

 reached twenty or twent^'-two years. They are suckled for two years ; and, 

 in a wild state, the young run for suck indiscriminately to any female, without 

 regard to the mother, and thus the cry of distress from any of tlie young 

 generally arouses the herd. The tusks arc shed about the twelfth or thir- 

 teenth year. The check teeth appear about six or seven weeks after birtli. 



Like other animals, the elepliant is subject to variations. Diticrence of 

 the general color is frequently seen, and some of a reddish hue are met with ; 

 but this has been attributed to adventitious matter received upon the skin by 

 rubbing, though, as a variety, it is still asserted by some to exist naturally. 

 A similar kind is found in Africa. But the white clc[iliant, occasioned by 

 albinism, is the most valuable, held even in veneration, and always brings 

 a most extravagant price. 



The different direction of the tusks has also given rise to different names ; 

 of tliose the most esteemed have the tusks nearly horizontal, and by the na- 

 tive princes they are frequently ornamented, and bear trinkets suspended. 

 India and the East are the countries where the elephant is most subjected 

 to the dominion of man, and where it becomes almost a necessary animal in 

 tlie business of tlie inhabitants, of course affording a profitable employment 

 to tlie dealers in those animals, or, if one may be allowed the term, to the 

 elephant jockeys. Various modes have been devised to capture them ; and 

 they do not appear to display the same active intelligence which they do on 



