90 
MAMMALIA. 
[Chap. II. 
ourselves. My horse hesitated: the elephant observed 
it, and impatiently thrust himself deeper into the jungle, 
repeating his cry of urmph! but in a voice evidently 
meant to encourage us to advance. Still the horse trem- 
bled; and anxious to observe the instinct of the two 
sagacious animals, I forbore any interference : again the 
elephant of his own accord wedged himself further in 
amongst the trees, and manifested some impatience that 
we did not pass him. At length the horse moved forward ; 
and when we were fairly past, I saw the wise creature 
stoop and take up its heavy burthen, trim and balance 
it on its tusks, and resume its route as before, hoarsely 
snorting its discontented remonstrance. 
Between the African elephant and that of Ceylon, 
with the exception of the striking peculiarity of the 
infrequency of tusks in the latter, the distinctions are 
less apparent to a casual observer than to a scientific 
naturalist. In the Ceylon species the forehead is higher 
and more hollow, the ears are smaller, and, in a section 
of the teeth, the grinding ridges, instead of being 
lozenge-shaped, are transverse bars of uniform breadth. 
The Indian elephant is stated by Cuvier to have four 
nails on the hind foot, the African variety having 
only three : but amongst the perfections of a high-bred 
elephant of Ceylon, is always enumerated the possession 
of twenty nails, whilst those of a secondary class have 
but eighteen in all. 1 
So conversant are the natives with the structure and 
" points " of the elephant, that they divide them readily 
into castes, and describe with particularity their dis- 
tinctive excellences and defects. In the Hastisilpe, a 
See Chapter on Mammalia, p. 60. 
