GREAT ELEPHANT. 221 



ing till they are sixteen or twenty years old : they 

 are said to live a hundred or a hundred and twenty 

 years. 



In the Philosophical Transactions, for the year 

 1799, we find some curious particulars relative to 

 the natural history of the Elephant, by Mr. Corse, 

 whose residence in India afforded him opportuni- 

 ties of investigating the subject with exactness. 



From these observations it appears that some- 

 thing must be subtracted from that elevated 

 character with which this animal has been so fre- 

 quently honoured; and that neither its docility 

 nor its memory can be allowed a very high rank, 

 when compared with those of some other animals ; 

 and that the scrupulous delicacy, which, as it was 

 pretended, forbad all public demonstration of its 

 passions, is a mere fable. A female Elephant has 

 also been known to forget her young one, after 

 having been separated from it for the short space 

 of only two days, and to repel its advances. An 

 Elephant, also, which had escaped from its con- 

 finement, has again suffered itself to be trepanned, 

 and reconducted to its state of captivity ; thus con- 

 tradicting, in a remarkable manner, the Iloratian 

 sentiment : 



; Quae bellua ruptis, 



Cum semel effugit, reddit se prava catenis ? * 



Both male and female Elephants, Mr. Corse 

 informs us, are divided by the natives of Bengal 



* What beast, deliver'd from the broken chain. 

 Perverse in folly, seeks his bonds again ? 



