Captivity 59 



when hurried, though his usual gait was at about 

 four miles to the hour. In fact, long continued 

 speed was not necessary to his existence. If 

 he charged an enemy, either he caught and 

 slew him, or the enemy decamped and thus 

 ceased to be harmful ; if he himself fled on 

 occasions of urgency, he had either avoided the 

 danger, or was prepared to meet it calmly after 

 a short distance had been traversed. 



The difference between wild animals and 

 those kept for show is perhaps never more 

 pronounced than with the elephant. This one 

 had a black, soft and pliant hide, warm to the 

 touch, and so sensitive that it responded at 

 once to the attack of a fly, while other insects, 

 so powerfully armed as are the gad-flies, left 

 drops of blood wherever they alighted. The 

 grey coloured hides encrusted with dirt, such 

 as are seen in the best managed Zoological 

 Gardens in Europe, are evidently the con- 

 sequence of the want of constant throwing of 

 mud and dust on the body, to be subsequently 

 washed away by forcible jets of water directed 

 from the trunk, thereby creating the friction 



