ELEPHANTS. 267 



must be at least a centenarian." The only way of discovering 

 approximately tlie age of an elephant is by the appearance of the 

 ear. Until the sixth or seventh year the top of the ear does not 

 curl, but in advancing years it does so and laps over, while its 

 lower edges become ragged and torn. Elephants continue to grow 

 until they are twenty-five years of age, and arrive at maturity 

 during the next ten years. 



A very singular thing, noticed by nearly every hunter and 

 explorer in India and Africa, is the extreme rarity with which 

 dead animals, or even any of their remains are found, and this is 

 especially remarkable in the case of such a large beast as the 

 elephant. So strange a fact has, of course, been the parent of 

 many conjectures, but a true solution of the mystery has not 

 yet been found. Some of the natives of both Africa and India 

 say the elephant never dies; others, that there is a place in 

 the hills, as yet unseen by human eye, where they retire to end 

 their days. Be this as it may, the position of this Pisgah of 

 the animal world has not yet been ascertained, and no man 

 knoweth of their sepulchre unto this day. As a matter of fact, 

 the complete disappearance of the bones of the thousands of 

 animals that must die annually is a strange natural phenomenon. 



Apropos of this subject, in Hone's " Bvery-Day Book " is the 

 following : " If elephants meet with a sick or wounded animal of 

 their own species they afford him all the assistance in their 

 power. Should he die, they bury him and carefully cover his body 

 with branches of trees." This is a popular belief among the 

 natives of certain districts of India, and was also recorded as a fact 

 by the G-reeks in olden times, and some incidents that have been 

 witnessed and commented on by modern travellers who were close 

 observers of these animals' habits and peculiarities tend to prove 

 there is more truth in it than at first may be supposed. 



Elephants associate together in herds or famihes that may 

 number only a few individuals, or be composed of much larger 

 numbers, herds that contain even one hundred or more not being 

 by any means uncommon. When the animals congregate together 

 in such profusion they will occasionally subdivide for certain 

 periods and in localities where their food is not very plentiful. 



