CHAPTER X. 



THE ASIATIC ELEPHANT. 



Elephas Indicus. 



Generally throughout India — Hdtld — Gaj — Fil. 



This Elephant is an inhabitant of the forests at the base of the Himalayas, being found 

 as far west as the Western Doon, and from thence eastwards all the way to Assam, as well as 

 in parts of the Central Provinces. 



The Asiatic Elephant is too well known to require description, being the only one which 

 had been exhibited in England until within the "last few years.* There are several varieties 

 which differ slightly in size, shape, and color. The facial angle varies a good deal, the 

 forehead being nearly perpendicular in the Doon Elephant, and receding in the Assam and 

 Burmese varieties. In Ceylon ' Tuskers ' are very rare, while at least two-thirds of the male 

 Elephants in the Sub-Himalayan forests are furnished with tusks. 



As with most large animals, the size of the Elephant has been greatly exaggerated, and 

 some years ago I saw a paragraph in an English newspaper alluding to an Elephant fourteen 

 feet high, which had been exhibited in some provincial town ! I cannot say exactly what is 

 the extreme height which the Elephant has been known to attain, but I should fancy that 

 eleven feet was the very outside. A ten-foot Elephant is a very large one, measured at the 

 shoulder. Baker mentions having shot an Elephant whose height he calculated at more than 

 eleven feet, but he states the average height of the Ceylon Elephant to be only about seven 

 feet, which is much smaller than the Doon and Terai Elephants. 



The Elephant is principally nocturnal in its habits, remaining concealed in some shady 

 retreat during the day, and often wandering long distances at night in search of its favorite 

 food. During the cold and dry months the Elephants betake themselves to the forests at 

 the very foot of the hills, usually retiring during the daytime to some secluded valley, and 

 coming out to feed in the evening. During the rains the Elephants leave the hills and often 

 resort to some jungle in the neighbourhood of villages, hiding among the high grass which 

 there springs up in a few weeks, and committing great ravages among the crops. 



* When this was written, the ridiculous Jumbo sensation had not developed, and the English public had not yet 

 proclaimed that they had more sympathy with the imaginary woes of an Elephant than with the real distress of widowed 

 and impoverished Irish ladies. 



