GREAT ELEPHANT. 215 



pleasure. The trunk, being flexible in all direc- 

 tions, performs the office of a hand and arm. On 

 its under surface it is somewhat flattened, and is 

 circularly formed on the upper. At the end of 

 the trunk are situated the nostrils. The teats 

 in the female Elephant are two in number, and 

 are situated at a small distance behind the fore 

 legs. The eyes are extremely small; the ears 

 very large, somewhat irregularly waved on the 

 edges, and pendulous. In each jaw are four 

 large and flat grinding teeth, with the upper sur- 

 faces flat, and scored or striated with numerous 

 transverse furrows. In the upper jaw are the two 

 tusks before described. The form of the whole 

 animal is extremely awkward: the head very 

 large: the body very thick; the back greatly 

 arched: the legs extremely thick, very short: and 

 the feet slightly divided into, or rather edged 

 with, rive rounded hoofs: the tail is of a mode- 

 rate length, and is terminated by a few scattered 

 hairs, of great thickness, and of a black-colour : 

 the general colour of the skin is also dusky or 

 blackish, as before mentioned, and has a few 

 thinly scattered hairs or bristles dispersed over it, 

 and which are somewhat more numerous about 

 the head. 



The tales related of the sagacity of the Ele- 

 phant are, in all probability, somewhat exagge- 

 rated, and must consequently be received with a 

 degree of limitation: but there is no reason to 

 doubt that they are possessed of a greater degree 

 of intelligence than most other quadrupeds (the 



