THE TAME ELEPHANT. 223 



not rational and preconcerted co-operation throughout the 

 whole party, and a degree of responsible authority exercised 

 ^by the patriarch leader. 



* When the poor animals had gained possession of the tank 

 (the leader being the last to enter), they seemed to abandon 

 themselves to enjoyment without restraint or apprehension 

 of danger. Such a mass of animal life I had never before 

 seen huddled together in so narrow a space. It seemed to 

 me as if they would have nearly drunk the tank dry. I 

 watched them with great interest until they had satisfied 

 themselves as well in bathing as in drinking, when I tried 

 how small a noise would apprise them of the proximity of 

 unwelcome neighbours. I had but to break a little twig, and 

 the solid mass instantly took flight like a herd of frightened 

 deer, each of the smaller calves being apparently shouldered 

 and carried along between two of the older ones. In drink- 

 ing, the elephant, like the camel, although preferring water 

 pure, shows no decided aversion to it when discoloured with 

 mud; and the eagerness with which he precipitates himself 

 into the tanks and streams attests his exquisite enjoyment of 

 the fresh coolness, which to him is the chief attraction. In 

 crossing deep rivers, although his rotundity and buoyancy 

 enable him to swim with a less immersion than other quad- 

 rupeds, he generally prefers to sink till no part of his huge 

 body IS visible except the lip of his trunk through which he 

 breathes, moving beneath 'the surface, and only now and 

 then raising his head to look that he is keeping the proper 

 direction." 



Elephant The aCFection shown by elephants for each 



Friendships, other has often had pathetic illustration. Two 

 elephants, male and female, which had been brought separately 

 to Paris, were placed in adjoining apartments divided by a 

 portcullis. The male soon discovered that this was fastened 

 by a bolt well within his reach, and hastily withdrawing it rushed 

 into the other apartment The meeting is described as in- 



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