ORDER PACHYDERMATA. 379 



under him, until in a little time he was enabled to stand 

 upon them ; by this time, however, the cunning brute, en- 

 joying the cool pleasure of his situation after the heat and 

 partial privation of water to which he had been lately 

 exposed, (they are observed in their natural state to frequent 

 rivers, and to swim very often,) was unwilling to work any 

 longer, and all the threats of his keeper could not induce 

 him to place another fascine. The man then opposed cun- 

 ning to cunning, and began to caress and praise the ele- 

 phant, and what he could not effect by threats he was enabled 

 to do by the repeated promise of plenty of rack. Incited by 

 this the animal again went to work, raised himself consi- 

 derably higher, until by a partial removal of the masonry 

 round the top of the well, he was enabled to step out: the 

 whole affair occupied about fourteen hours. This affair in- 

 volves a series of intellectual operations, which it seems 

 very difficult to separate from reason. 



Major Smith had an opportunity of studying the charac- 

 ter of an elephant which was exhibited a few years ago in 

 the United States. This animal had a great affection for a 

 dog, and the spectators, to tease her, used occasionally to 

 pull the dog's ears and make it yelp ; on one occasion when 

 this species of joke was going on at the side of a barn, 

 within which the elephant was kept, as soon as she heard 

 the voice of the dog in distress, she began to feel the 

 boards that separated her from it, and giving one blow, ap- 

 peared surprised that they did not fall : she then struck 

 with greater force, made the boards fly in splinters, and 

 looked through with such menacing gesture, that the ex- 

 perimentalists thought proper to make off. 



The newspapers mentioned at the time another incident 

 of this animal: the elephant was crossing a river in a passage 

 punt, when some men, to tease her, took the dog into a 

 boat that was towed alongside, and began to pull its ears ; 

 the elephant resenting the ill-usage, filled her proboscis 



