THE ELEPHANT. 



713 



faintest sound; the long swaying trunk, merely as an organ of smell, has an acute - 

 ness unmatched by the keenest dog that ever tracked game. He has, moreover, a 

 courage, and when irritated, a ferocity, surpassed by no other animal ; so that one 

 needs to be a bold and wary hunter who assails him in his native haunts. 



Yet, when unmolested by man, who is his chief, and almost only enemy, the elephant 

 is the image of strength and good-nature, loving the shady forest and the secluded 

 lake. Disliking the glare of the midday sun, he spends the day in the thickest woods, 

 devoting the night to excursions and to the luxury of the bath, his great and innocent 

 delight. Though the earth trembles under his strides, yet like the whale, he is timid ; 

 but this timidity is accounted for by his small range of vision. Anything unusual 

 strikes him with terror, and the most trivial objects and incidents, from being imper- 

 fectly discerned, excite his suspicions. An instinctive consciousness that his superior 

 bulk exposes him to danger from sources that might be harmless in the case of lighter 

 animals is probably the reason why the elephant displays a remarkable reluctance 

 to face the slightest artificial obstruction on his passage. Even when enraged by a 

 wound, he will hesitate to charge his assailant across an intervening hedge, suspecting 

 it may conceal a snare or pitfall, but will hurry along it to seek for an opening. Un- 

 like the horse, he never gets accustomed to the report of fire-arms, and thus he never 

 plays an active part in battle, but serves in a campaign only as a common beast of 

 burden, or for the transport of heavy artillery. To make up for his restricted vision, 

 his neck being so formed as to render him incapable of directing the range of his eye 

 much above the level of his head, he is endowed with a. remarkable power of smell, 

 and a delicate sense of hearing, which serve to apprise him of the approach of danger. 



Although, from their huge bulk, the elephants might be supposed to prefer a level 

 country, yet, in Asia at least, the regions where they most abound are all hilly and 

 mountainous. In Ceylon, particularly, there is not a range so high as to be inacces- 

 sible to them, and so sure-footed are they, that provided there be solidity to sustain 

 their weight, they will climb rocks and traverse ledges, where even a mule dare not 

 venture. Hooker admired the judicious winding of the elephant's path in the Hima- 

 layas, and Tennent describes the sagacity which he displays in laying out roads, or 

 descending abrupt banks, as almost incredible. His first manoeuvre is to kneel down 

 close to the edge of the declivity, placing his chest to the ground, one fore-leg is then 

 cautiously passed a short way down the slope, and if there is no natural protection to 

 afford a firm footing, he speedily forms one by stamping into the soil, if moist, or kick- 

 ing out a footing, if dry. This point gained, the other fore-leg is brought down in 

 the same way, and performs the same work, a little in advance of the first, which is 

 thus at liberty to move lower still. Then first one and then the second of the hind- 

 legs is carefully drawn over the side, and the hind-feet in turn occupy the resting- 

 places previously used and left by the fore ones. The course, however, in such pre- 

 cipitous ground is not straight from top to bottom, but slopes along the face of the 

 bank, descending till the animal gains the level below. This an elephant has done at 

 an angle of forty-five degrees, carrying a houdah, its occupant, his attendant, and 

 in much less time than it takes to describe the operation. 



The stomach of the elephant, like that of the camel or the llama, is provided with 

 a cavity^ serving most probably as a reservoir for water against the emergencies of 

 thirst ; but the most remarkable feature in the organization of the *' Leviathan of the 



