376 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



stepped a couple of paces forward, took the branch in his 

 trunk, and felt as if examining where it would split off; 

 finding it easy at this place, he moved a little back to where 

 it was thicker ; then taking a firm hold, he gave it three or 

 four successive swings, increasing his force, till with one 

 very powerful effort it tore and fell on the ground. Being 

 appealed to, to remove another branch still higher, he looked 

 up, stretched his proboscis, and caught only a twig or two 

 and some leaves ; he was urged again, he shook his ears 

 and gave a piping sound of displeasure ; but the mohaut 

 insisting after another vain attempt, he caught the bearing 

 pole of a dooly (a kind of palanquin,) and shook it with 

 violence, making a poor sick soldier immediately start out 

 of it: the hint was sufficient — he would not be trifled with. 



Elephants frequently are employed to assist in the con- 

 veyance of heavy artillery, not by drawing the guns, which 

 is left to oxen, but by lifting them when there may be oc- 

 casion, as in the case of a bank, or through mud, or such 

 like impediment to their progress. In these situations it 

 is always observed that the elephant will not attempt to 

 raise the gun till all the draught cattle are on a full strain 

 to pull it forward. 



This action it seems very difficult to refer to any other 

 principle than that of an understanding, however simple, 

 of the effect of the combined horizontal and vertical force 

 necessary under the circumstances to extricate so unwieldy 

 a mass as a twenty-four pounder. 



At the siege of Bhurtpore in the year 1805, an affair 

 occurred between two elephants, which displays at once the 

 character and mental capability, the passions, cunning, and 

 resources of these curious animals. The British army, with 

 its countless host of followers and attendants, and thousands 

 of cattle, had been for a long time before the city, when on 

 the approach of the hot season, and of the dry hot winds, 

 the supply of water in the neighbourhood of the camp ne- 



