Chap. III.] 
THE ELEPHANT. 
95 
All the elephant hunters and natives to whom I have 
spoken on the subject, concur in opinion that its range 
of vision is circumscribed, and that it relies more on its 
ear and sense of smell than on its sight, which is liable 
to be obstructed by dense foliage ; 'besides which, from 
the formation of its short neck, the elephant is incapable 
of directing the range of the eye much above the level 
of the head. 1 
The elephant's small range of vision is sufficient to 
account for its excessive caution, its alarm at unusual 
noises, and the timidity and panic exhibited at trivial 
1 After writing the above, I was 
permitted by the late Dr. Harbi- 
son, of Dublin, to see some accurate 
drawings of the brain of an ele- 
phant, which he had the opportu- 
nity of dissecting in 1847 ; and on 
looldng to that of the base, I have 
found a remarkable verification of 
the information which I collected 
in Ceylon. 
The small figure A is the gan- 
glion of the fifth nerve, showing 
the small motor and large sensitive 
portion. 
Olfactory lobes — large. 
Optic nerve — Bmall. 
•Third pair — small. 
'Fourth pair — small. 
■The two portions of the fifth pair, the sensi- 
tive portion very large, for the proboscis. 
Sixth pair — small. 
Seventh pair— portio dura, or motor, very 
large for proboscis. 
The olfactory lobes, from which 
the olfactory nerves proceed, are 
large, whilst the optic and muscular 
nerves of the orbit are singularly 
small for so vast an animal ; and. 
one is immediately struck by the 
prodigious size of the fifth nerve, 
which supplies the proboscis with 
its exquisite sensibility, as well as 
by the great size of the motor por- 
tion of the seventh, which supplies 
the same organ with its power of 
movement and action. 
