ELEPHANT 127 



Blue Nile — attain an enormous stature, but do not carry tusks at all approaching 

 in size and weight those from the equatorial regions. Smallest of all is the dwarf 

 Congo elephant (E. a. pumilio), which does not appear to exceed 7 or 8 feet in 

 heio-ht. Whether this race is the so-called water-elephant of the great lakes of 

 the Cono-o district, or whether that mysterious animal represents an altogether 

 distinct type, is a question which cannot yet be decided. 



Indian and African elephants, it may be mentioned, have quite different ways 

 of using the tips of their trunks. In the former, some small object, such as a 

 handful of bran, is held by the tip of the trunk being bent on itself, so that the 

 object is squeezed between the tip and the lower surface of the trunk, whereas in 

 the latter the object is held between the two lips of the trunk-tip, much after the 

 fashion in which fruit is placed in a cornucopia. 



In habits the different local races appear to present certain diversities from one 

 another ; the East Sudan race digging to a great extent in the sand for roots, and 

 consequently wearing away the extremity of one tusk, generally the right. In the 

 more central races this habit is apparently less marked, but it reappears in South 

 Africa, where whole tracts may be seen ploughed up by the tusks of these animals. 

 Speaking generally, African elephants appear to be stronger and more active 

 animals than their Asiatic relatives, their movements being quicker, and the activity 

 they display when ascending steep places being little short of marvellous. On Kili- 

 manjaro they ascend to a height of about 10,000 feet, and in Abyssinia to between 

 6000 and 7000 feet. In this respect they resemble the Indian species, which in Ceylon 

 ascends to 7000 feet, and in British Bhutan to the summit of Sathi-La, which is 

 10,350 feet above sea-level. This they do at all seasons of the year, according to 

 the observations of a member of the Indian Forest Service, who states that in 

 April 1907, when snow lay so late that yaks were grazing in Sikhim at 7000 feet 

 up to the second week in May, he found on visiting Sathi-La that the snow — then 

 about 2 feet deep — had been trampled down by them in all directions, all sizes of 

 elephants being represented down to very young calves. While there they feed 

 on the maling bamboo (Arundinaria racemosa) and bathe in the small ponds, of 

 which there are three near the top of the hill. Whether this even is the greatest 

 elevation to which they ascend cannot be determined, although it is possible that 

 they go even higher in Bhutan if there is suitable ground. 



On the other hand, the African elephant presents a marked contrast to its 

 cousin in India in that it frequents the burning plains of the Sudan, covered with 

 parched grass, far away from the forests, and this too in the midst of the noon-tide 

 heat. In accordance with the structure of its teeth, the African species feeds on 

 coarser food than the Asiatic elephant ; its diet in South Africa comprising roots, 

 both fibrous and bulbous, and fruits, either plucked from the trees or picked up 

 from the ground. As a rule, it is a careful feeder, doing little harm to the trunks or 

 the branches of the trees, and selecting, in preference, such kinds as yield gum or resin. 

 Occasionally, however, it destroys trees, breaking off their stems a foot or so from the 

 ground in order to obtain the tender foliage and shoots of their tops ; but, in general, 

 it does little damage to the forests. In South Africa elephants occasionally eat 

 grasses with large seeds, and in this respect differ from those in the Sudan, which 

 feed chiefly on branches and roots, and do much harm to the mimosas. 



