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 



1 See Chapter on Mammalia, p. 60. 



