Chap, in.] 
THE ELEPHANT. 
129 
regarded as more than a common coincidence, that an 
apparatus, so unique in its purpose and action, should 
thus have been conferred by the Creator on the three 
animals which in sultry climates are, by this arrangement, 
enabled to traverse arid regions in the service of man. 1 
To show this peculiar organization where it attains its 
fullest development, I have given a sketch of the water- 
cells in the stomach of the camel on the preceding page. 
The food of the elephant is so abundant, that in 
feeding he never appears to be impatient or voracious, 
but rather to play with the leaves and branches on 
which he leisurely feeds. In riding by places where a 
herd has recently halted, I have sometimes seen the bark 
peeled curiously off the twigs, as though it had been 
done in mere dalliance. In the same way in eating 
grass the elephant selects a tussac which he draws from 
the ground by a dexterous twist of his trunk, and 
nothing can be more graceful than the ease with which, 
before conveying it to his mouth, he beats the earth 
from its roots by striking it gently upon his fore-leg. 
A coco-nut he first rolls under foot, to detach the strong 
outer bark, then stripping off with his trunk the thick 
layer of fibre within, he places the shell in his mouth, 
and swallows with evident relish the fresh liquid which 
flows as he crushes it between his grinders. 
The natives of the peninsula of Jaffna always look for 
the periodical appearance of the elephants, at the precise 
1 The buffalo and the humped water, somewhat more conspicuous 
cattle of India, which are used for than in the rest of their congeners ; 
draught and burden, have, I be- but nothing that approaches in 
lieve, a development of the organi- singularity of character to the 
sation of the reticulum which distinct cavities the stomach 
enables the ruminants generally to exhibited by the three animals 
endure thirst, and abstain from above alluded to. 
K 
