lO 
A TREATISE ON ELEPHANTS. 
the tail should be of good length, free from hardness, and provided 
with a good tuft of bristles. Animals such as described will not 
often be met with ; still when selecting, it will be as well to obtain 
those possessing most .of the good points enumerated. 
The undesirable points are numerous. Some animals are flat- 
sided, others have high arched backs, with very prominent spinal 
ridges [see Fig. i) ; others are narrow-chested, with lean lowjfore- 
FiG. I. — Elephant with prominent spinal ridge. After Sanderson. 
quarters, or are leggy, and devoid of those enormous masses of 
muscle seen on the fore-limbs of a good elephant. In some animals 
the legs are of almost uniform girth throughout ; tall leggy beasts 
and those with bad fore-quarters are invariably rough in action and 
slow in their paces ; they are, moreover, much more liable to gall, 
and are generally indifferent workers. Elephants with thin, light- 
coloured skins, even if they possess many good points, should be 
avoided ; they are as a rule not strong, and frequently fall sick. 
Those animals possessed of lean heads, hollow cheeks, small restless 
eyes, shortish thin trunks, should be treated with suspicion, as they 
very often are bad-tempered. 
