ASIATIC AND AFRICAN ELEPHANTS. 



715 



hunters. Mr. S. G. Baker, now Sir Samuel Baker, since noted for bis exploration of 

 the source of the Nile, was long ago a noted elephant-hunter in Ceylon, and his book 

 " The Bifle and the Hound in Ceylon " abounds with incidents of adventure and dar- 

 ing in shooting these rogues. " Deprived," he says,"of the ameliorating influence of 

 female society, the old rogue becomes doubly vicious. He appears to be in bad humor 

 with the world generally, and with himself in particular, spending the greatest part of 

 his time when not feeding, in pacing back and forth, with his tail cocked in the air, 

 ready for a rush upon any one that approaches his haunts." Their pluck is equal to 

 their cunning When they travel in the day-time, they always go with the wind, aodj 

 nothing can follow on their track without their knowledge. When the rogue is pur- 

 sued in the open forest or on the naked plain he usually retreats ; but the chances are 

 ten to one that he is merely enticing the hunter to follow him into some favorite haunt 

 among the dense jungle, from which he will charge at some unexpected moment. 



The elephant inhabits both Asia and Africa, but each of these two parts of the world 

 has its peculiar species. The African elephant is distinguished by the lozenge-shaped 

 prominences of ivory and enamel on the surface of his grinders, which in the Indian 

 elephant are narrow, tranverse bars of uniform breadth ; his skull has a more rounded 

 form, and is deficient in the double lateral bump conspicuous in the former ; and he 

 has only fifty-four vertebrae, while the Indian has sixty-one. On the other hand, he 

 possesses twenty-one ribs, while the latter has only nineteen. His tusks are also much 

 larger, and his body is of much greater bulk, as the female attains the stature of the 

 full-grown Indian male. The ear is at least three times the size, being not seldom 

 above four feet long, and broad, so that Dr. Livingstone mentions having seen a negro, 

 who under cover of one of these prodigious flaps effectually screened himself from the 

 rain. All these differences of character appeared so great to M. Cuvier as to induce 

 him to consider the African elephant as a peculiar genus. 



Ancient medals representing large-eared elephants drawing chariots, are conclusive 

 of the fact that the Bomans knew how to catch and tame the African elephant. He 

 was even considered more docile than the Asiatic, and was taught various feats, as 

 walking on ropes and dancing. The elephants with which Hannibal crossed the Alps, 

 as well as those which. Pyrrhus led into Italy, must undoubtedly have been African. 

 At present he is only killed for his ivory, his hide, his flesh, or from the mere wanton- 

 ness of destruction. The Cape colonists, to whom his services might be of great im- 

 portance, have never made the attempt to tame him, nor has one of this species ever 

 been exhibited in England ; but the big-eared, large-tusked African elephant is the one 

 best known in American menageries. 



The African elephant has a very wide range, from Caffraria to Nubia, and from the 

 Zambesi to Cape Yerde, and the impenetrable deserts of the Sahara alone prevent him 

 from wandering to the shores of the Mediterranean. Although in South Africa the 

 persecutions of the natives, and of his still more formidable enemies the colonists and 

 English huntsmen, have considerably thinned his numbers, and driven him farther and 

 farther to the north, yet in the interior of the country he is still met with in prodigious 

 numbers. Dr. Barth frequently saw large herds winding through the open plains, 

 and swimming in majestic lines through the rivers, with elevated trunks, or bathing in 

 the shallow lakes for coolness or protection against insects. 



Livingstone gives us many interesting accounts of the different modes of South 



