234 



MAMMALIA. 



[Chap. VII. 



said to have been found in the stables by the Dutch on 

 the expulsion of the Portugese in 1656. 



It is perhaps from this popular belief in their almost 

 illimitable age, that the natives generally assert that the 

 body of a dead elephant is seldom or never to be dis- 

 covered in the woods- And certain it is that frequenters 

 of the forest with whom I have conversed, whether 

 European or Singhalese, are consistent in their assur- 

 ances that they have never found the remains of an 

 elephant that had died a natural death. One chief, the 

 Wannyah of the Trincomalie district, told a friend of 

 mine, that once after a severe murrain, which had swept 

 the province, he found the carcases of elephants that 

 had died of the disease. On the other hand, a Euro- 

 pean gentleman, who for thirty-six years without 

 intermission has been living in the jungle, ascending to 

 the summits of mountains in the prosecution of the 

 trigonometrical survey, and penetrating valleys in trac- 

 ing roads and opening means of communication, — one, 

 too, who has made the habits of the wild elephant a 

 subject of constant observation and study, — has often 

 expressed to me his astonishment that after seeing many 

 thousands of living elephants in all possible situations, 

 he had never yet found a single skeleton of a dead one, 

 except of those which had fallen by the rifle. 1 



It has been suggested that the bones of the elephant 

 may be so porous and spongy as to disappear in conse- 

 quence of an early decomposition; but this remark would 



1 This remark regarding the ele- woods are frequently found." — 

 phant of Ceylon does not appear to Af rican Memoranda relative to an 

 extend to that of Africa, as I observe attempt to establish British Settle- 

 that Beavee, in his African Me- ments at the Island of Bulama. 

 moranda, says that "the skeletons Lond. 1815, p. 353. 

 of old ones that have died in the 



