46 THE WONDERS OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



tracts his skin, and crushes them between its wrinkles; he gathers boughs from the trees with his 

 trunk, and brushes them away, and when all these arts are unsuccessful, he collects dust with his 

 trunk, and strews it over the most sensible parts of his body. He has been seen to dust himself in 

 this manner several times a day, especially after bathing. He swims with great ease, and in this way 

 whole troops sometimes pass over rivers and narrow straits. 



The teeth, or tusks, of the elephant are a well-known article of commerce! we are indebted to 

 Mr. Corse Scot, who resided many years in India, for the most correct information respecting them. 

 The tusks in some female elephants are so small as not to appear beyond the lip, whilst in others they 

 are almost as large and long as in one variety of the male, called Mooknah. The grinders are much 

 alike in both sexes. The tusks are fixed very deep in the upper jaw, and the root or upper part, 

 which is hollow, goes as high as the insertion of the trunk round the margin of the nasal opening to 

 the throat, which opening is just below the protuberance of the forehead. Through this opening the 

 elephant breathes, and by its means he sucks up water into his trunk ; between it and the roots of the 

 tusks there is only a thin bony plate. The first, or milk tusks of an elephant never grow to any con- 

 siderable size, but are shed between the first and second year, when not^two inches in length. The 

 largest elephants' tusks which Mr. Scot ever saw in Bengal did not exceed the weight of seventy-two 

 pounds avoirdupois, and at Tippera they seldom exceed fifty pounds each. Both these weights are, 

 however, very inferior to that of the tusks brought from other parts to the India-House, where some 

 have weighed one hundred and fifty pounds each. 



The time of gestation of the female elephant has been much disputed. Aristotle stated it at two years, 

 and Buffon was at one time led to fix it at the same period. The latter was, however, subsequently 

 induced to consider nine months as the most likely time, and in this he was followed by Mr. Pennant. 

 Mr. Scot has, however, ascertained by actual experiment, that the female really goes with young 

 nearly twenty-one months. The young, when first born, is about three feet high, and continues 

 growing for sixteen or eighteen years. It was supposed by Buffon that the young elephant sucked 

 by means of its trunk, but later observations have shewn that it sucks in the usual way with the 

 mouth, using the trunk for grasping the teats of the mother, to press out the milk. It has not been 

 yet ascertained how long an elephant usually lives in its native forests. In captivity he is said to live 

 about one hundred and fifty years, and it is therefore not improbable that in his natural state he may 

 attain the age of two hundred years. 



The elephant when tamed is gentle, obedient, tractable, and patient of labour. He is so attentive 

 to the commands of his governor, that a word or look is sufficient to stimulate him to the greatest 

 exertions. His attachment to his keeper is remarkable ; he caresses him with his trunk, and fre- 

 quently will obey no other master. He knows his voice, and can distinguish between the tones of 

 command, of approbation, and of anger. Elephants are sometimes employed in Eastern countries as 

 the executioners of public justice, and they will trample a criminal to death, break his limbs with their 

 trunks, or impale him on their enormous tusks, according to the orders given him. 



The elephant, of which our engraving is an exact likeness, was purchased by Mr. Wombwell at 

 the enormous price of one thousand guineas. The keepers rasp his hide daily with the coarsest files, 

 and then anoint him with oil, to preserve the lubricity of his hide, which, without that unction, would 

 partake so much of the nature of parchment, as to prevent the animal, without great pain, from pro- 

 strating itself, and might eventually prove the means of its death. 



