HEIGHT. 
5 
elephants are said to seldom exceed 9 ft.,* and the ordinary herd 
■elephants do not average more than 8 ft. 
Of 300 males measured in this Province, the average height v^^as 
7 ft. I o-|- ins., girth 11 ft. 10 ins. ; and of 100 females, the average 
height was found to be 7 ft. 5|- ins., girth 10 ft. 11 ins. All these 
animals were measured at the shoulder as is done with horses. An 
elephant dealer, through whose hands some two thousand elephants 
had passed, stated that he had only met with one animal measuring 
9 ft. 4 ins. at the shoulder. Mr. C. B. Ivacey informs me that in 
Siam the tallest animal owned by the Bombay Burma Trading Cor- 
poration measures 9 ft. 6 ins. at the shoulder. This fact shows how 
rare it is to come across an animal 9^ ft. and over, for the Bombay 
Burma Trading Corporation have records of a thousand and more 
animals, yet this is the only one they possess measuring 9 ft. 
6 ins. ; and at the present time they have some 2,000 or 3,000 
■elephants in their employ. 
Details of measurements of 300 male elephants — 
Ft. in. 
Ft. 
in. 
23 
animals or 7*67 per cent., 
height 7 0 and under 
7 
6 
57 
7 6 
7 
8 
94 
31*33 
„ 7 9 
7 
II 
67 
22-33 
„ S 0 
8 
2 
_59 
19-67 
„ 3 and above. 
300 
lOO'OO 
average 
7 
loi 
Of the above number, there were only two animals 9 ft. and 
over, namely, one exactly 9 ft. in height with a girth of 14 ft. 
9 ins., the other 9 ft. i in. with a girth of i 3 ft. 9 ins. 
Details of measurements of 100 females — 
Ft. in. Ft. in. 
48 animals or 48 per cent., height 7 o and under 7 6 
35 » 35 ,,76 „ 78 
13 » 13 » ..7 9 7 II 
_4 _J: " ..80 „ 8 3 
100 100 average 7 5f 
The above measurements were taken haphazard from the 
recorded measurements of considerably over 800 animals. The 
males from 7 ft. and under 7 ft. 6 ins. were probably not fully 
grown, yet were sufficiently so to be working, and in all probability 
unlikely to grow much more {see Appendix D). 
Burmans give the height of elephants in cubits, the " cubit " 
employed by them being the ordinary cubit p/ns a hand's breadth 
or roughly 2 i ins. 
* Emerson Tennent — " Ceylon," 1859. 
