MAMMALIA—ELEPHANT. 2a) 
‘hem. They cannot support cold, and suffer equally from excessive heat: 
for, to avoid the burning rays of the sun, they penetrate into the thickest 
forest;. They also bathe often in the water; the enormous size of their 
body is rather an advantage to them in swimming, and they do not swim 
so deep in the water as other animals; besides, the length of their trunk, 
whick they erect, and through which they breathe, takes from them all fear 
of being drowned. 
Their common food is roots, herbs, leaves, and young branches; they alsa 
eat fruit and corn, but they have a dislike to flesh and fish. When one cé 
them finds abundant pasture, he calls the others, and invites them to come arx 
feed with him. As they want a great quantity of fodder, they often change 
their place, and when they find cultivated lands, they make a prodigious 
waste ; their bodies being of an enormous weight, they destroy ten times more 
with their feet, than they consume for their food, which may be reckoned at 
the rate of one hundred and fifty pounds of grass daily. As they never feed 
but in great numbers, they waste a large territory in about an hour’s time ; 
for this reason, the Indians and the negroes take great pains to prevent their 
Visits, and to drive them away, by making a great noise, and great fires; not- 
withstanding these precautions, however, the elephants often take possession 
of them, drive away the cattle and men, and sometimes pull down their 
cottages. It is difficult to frighten them, as they are litile susceptible of 
fear ; nothing can stop them but fireworks, and crackers, thrown amongst 
them, the sudden effect of which, often repeated, forces them sometimes to 
turn back. It is very difficult to part them, for they commonly attack their 
enemies all together, proceed unconcerned, or turn back. 
The female elephant goes two years with young; she only brings forth 
one at a time, which has teeth as soon as brought forth. He is then larger 
than a boar; yet his tusks are not visible, they appear soon after, and at 
six months old are some inches in length; at that age, the elephant is 
larger than an ox, and the tusks continue to increase till he is advanced 
in years. 
It is very easy to tame the elephant. But there is no domestic elephant 
that has not been wild before. The manner of taking, taming, and bring= 
ing them into submission, deserves particular attention. In the middle of 
forests, and in the vicinity of the places which they frequent, a large space 
is chosen, and encircled with palisadoes; the strongest trees of the forest 
serve instead of stakes, to which cross pieces of timber are fastened, which 
support the other stakes; a man may easily pass through this palisado; 
there is another great opening, through which the elephant may go mm, with 
a trap hanging over it, or a gate whicn 1s snut behind him. To bring nim 
to that inclosure, he must be enticed by a tame female, ready to take the 
male; and when her leader thinks she is near enough to be heard, he obliges 
her to indicate by her eries the condition she is in. The wild male answers 
immediately, and begins his march to join her: she repeats her call now 
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