300 MAMMALIA. [Chap. III. 
the largest when killed was found to measure nine feet 
six, from the foot to the hip-bone. 1 
For a creature of such extraordinary weight it is asto- 
nishing how noiselessly and stealthily the elephant can 
escape from a pursuer. When suddenly disturbed 
in the jungle, it will burst away with a rush that seems 
to bear down all before it ; but the noise sinks into 
absolute stillness so suddenly, that a novice might well 
be led to suppose that the fugitive had only halted within 
a few yards of him, when further search will disclose 
that it has. 'stolen silently away, making scarcely a 
sound in its escape; and, stranger still, leaving the 
foliage almost undisturbed by its passage. 
The most venerable delusion respecting the elephant, 
and that which held its ground with unequalled tenacity, 
is the ancient fallacy which is explained by Sie Thomas 
Beowne in his Pseudodoxia Epidemica, that f f it hath no 
joynts ; and this absurdity is seconded by another, that 
being unable to lye downe it sleepeth against a tree, 
which the hunters observing doe saw almost asunder, 
whereon the beast relying, by the fall of the tree falls 
also downe it-self e and is able to rise no more." 2 Sir 
Thomas is disposed to think that " the hint and ground 
of this opinion might be the grosse and somewhat 
cylindricall composure of the legs of the elephant, and 
the equality and lesse perceptible disposure of the 
joynts, especially in the forelegs of this animal, they 
1 Denham's Travels, §c, 4to Falconer " that out of eleven hun- 
p. 220. The fossil remains of the dred elephants from which the tall- 
Indian elephant have been dis- est were selected and measured 
covered at J abalpur, showing a with care, on one occasion in India, 
height of fifteen feet. — Journ. there was not one whose height 
Asiat. Soe. Beng. vi. Professor equalled eleven feet." 
Ansted in his Ancient World, p. 2 Vulgar Errors, hook iii. chap. 1. 
197, says he was informed by Dr. 
