246 An Account of the - 



were fecured In the Keddab> in a manner exactly fimilar to the conjunction 

 of the horfe with a mare. 



This fact entirely overturns what has been fo often related concerning 

 the fuppofed delicacy of this ufeful animal, and a variety of other hypothec 

 fes, which are equally void of foundation. As far as I know, the exact time, 

 an elephant goes with young, has not yet been afcertained, but which can- 

 not be lefs than two years, as one of the elephants brought forth a young 

 one twenty-one months and three days after (he was taken. She was oh~ 

 ferved to be with young in April or May 1788, and fhe was only taken in 

 January preceding ; fo that it is very likely fhe mud have had connection 

 with the male fome months before {lie was fecured, otherwife they could 

 not have difcovered that fhe was with young, as a fcetus of lefs than fix- 

 months cannot well be fuppofed to make any alteration in the fize or fhape 

 of fo large an animal. The young one, a male, was produced OEiob.r 16th 

 3789 and appeared in every reject to h./ve arrived at its full time. Mr. 

 Harris, to whom it belongs, examined its mouth a few days after it was 

 brought forth, and found that one of its grinders on each fide had partly cut 

 the gum. It is now alive and well, and begins to chew a little grafs. 



I have further to remark, that one of the tufks of the young elephant 

 has made its appearance, fo that we can now afcertain it to be of that fpecies 

 called Mucknah, the tufks cf which are always fmall, and point nearly 

 fhraight downwards. He was thirty-five inches high at his birth, and is 

 now thirty-nine, fo that he has grown four inches in nearly as many 

 months. Elephants are always meafured at the (boulder j for the arch or 

 curve of the back* of young ones particularly, is confiderably higher than 

 my other paxt, and it is a fure fign of old age, whenever this curve is found 



