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. t 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 Horatian 

 sentiment : 



, Quae bellua ruptis, 



Cum semel effugit, reddit se prava catenis ? * 



Eotli male and female Elephants, Mr. Corse 

 informs us, are divided by the natives of Bengal 



* What beast, delivered from the broken chain, 

 Perverse in folly, seeks his bonds again ? 



