Cuar. III.) THE ELEPHANT. 111 
enabled, on uneven ground, to lift his feet, which are 
tender and sensitive, with delicacy, and plant them 
with such precision as to ensure his own safety as 
well as that of objects which it is expedient to avoid 
touching. 
A herd of elephants is a family, not a group whom 
accident or attachment may have induced to associate 
together. Similarity of features and caste attest that, 
among the various individuals which compose it, there 
is a common lineage and relationship. In a herd of 
ever, in such precipitous ground is but slopes along the face of the 
bank, descending till the animal 
not straight from top to bottom, 
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gains the level below. This an operation.” I have observed that 
elephant has done, at an angle of 
45 degrees, carrying a howdah, its 
occupant, his attendant, and sport- 
ing apparatus ; and in a much less 
time than it takes to describe the 
an elephant in descending a de- 
clivity uses his knees, on the side, 
next the bank; and his feet on the 
lower side only, 
