Chap. III.] 
THE ELEPHANT. 
121 
ened deer, each of the smaller calves being apparently 
shouldered and carried along between two of the older 
ones." 1 
In drinking, the elephant, like the camel, although 
preferring water pure, shows no decided aversion to it 
when discoloured with mud 2 ; and the eagerness with 
which he precipitates himself into the tanks and streams 
attests his exquisite enjoyment of the fresh coolness, 
which to him is the chief attraction. In crossing deep 
rivers, although his rotundity and buoyancy enable him 
to swim with a less immersion than other quadrupeds, 
he generally prefers to sink till no part of his huge body 
is visible except the tip of his trunk, through which he 
breathes, moving beneath the surface, and only now and 
then raising his head to look that he is keeping the 
proper direction. 3 In the dry season the scanty streams 
which, during the rains, are sufficient to convert the 
rivers of the low country into torrents, often entirely 
disappear, leaving only broad expanses of dry sand, 
which they have swept down with them from the hills. 
'In this the elephants contrive to sink wells for their 
own use by scooping out the sand to the depth of four 
or five feet, and leaving a hollow for the percolation of 
the spring. But as the weight of the elephant would 
force in the side if left perpendicular, one approach is 
always formed with such a gradient that he can reach 
1 Letter from Major Skinner. 3 A tame elephant, when taken 
2 This peculiarity was known in by his keepers to be bathed, and 
the middle ages, and Phile, writing to have his skin washed and rubbed, 
in the fourteenth century, says, that lies down on his side, pressing his 
such is his preference for muddy head to the bottom under water, 
water that the elephant stirs it be- with only the top of his trunk 
fore he drinks. protruded, to breathe. 
""T5<wo 8k ■niveiavyxvQtvvpXvavTr'ivoi 
Tb yap Sieides aKpL&ws SiairTvei" 
— Phile de Eleph., i. 144. 
