214 GREAT ELEPHANT. 



seems to be from nine to ten feet*. Elephants 

 are commonly found in the midst of shady woods, 

 being equally averse to extreme heat as to cold : 

 they delight in cool spots, near rivers, and fre- 

 quently bathe themselves in the water, and even 

 roll in the mud. They are also capable of swim- 

 ming with great ease. Their general food con- 

 sists of the tender branches of various trees, as 

 well as of grains and fruits. It is for this reason 

 that their incursions are so much dreaded in plan- 

 tations of various kinds, where they are said occa- 

 sionally to commit the most violent depredations ; 

 at the same time, injuring the crops by trampling 

 the ground with their vast feet. The trunk of the 

 Elephant may justly be considered as one of the 

 miracles of Nature; being, at once, the organ of 

 respiration, and the instrument by which the ani- 

 mal supplies itself with food; conveying whatever 

 it eats into the mouth by its assistance. By this 

 instrument also it drinks ; first sucking up the wa- 

 ter by the trunk, and then pouring it into the 

 mouth. This wonderful organ is, as it were, com- 

 posed of a vast number of flexible rings, and con- 

 sists of a double tube, with a somewhat flattened 

 circular tip, furnished with a projecting point, or 

 fleshy moveable hook, of extreme sensibility, and 

 with which it can pick up the smallest object at 



* How much the size of these animals has been exaggerated may- 

 be judged from the account given by Dr. Hill, who, in his Natural 

 History, tells us, that the Elephant, when at full growth, measures 

 from seventeen to twenty feet in height, from the ground to the 

 highest part of the back. Vide Hill's Nat. Hist, of Animals, p. $6$, 



