630 VERTEBRATA. 
six to twenty individuals. The younger bulls remain for many years in the company of their 
mothers, and these are met together in large herds of from twenty to a hundred individuals. The 
food of the elephant consists of the branches, leaves, and roots of trees, and also of a variety of 
bulbs, of the situation of which he is advised by his exquisite sense of smell. To obtain these he 
turns up the ground with his tusks, and whole acres may be seen thus plowed up. Elephants 
consume an immense quantity of food, and pass the greater part of the day and night in feeding. 
Like the whale in the ocean, the elephant on land is acquainted with, and roams over, wide and 
extensive tracts. He is extremely particular in always frequenting the freshest and most verdant 
districts of the forest, and when one district is parched and barren, he will forsake it for years, 
and wander to great distances in quest of better pasture. 
" The elephant entertains an extraordinary horror of man, and a child can put a hundred of 
them to flight by passing at a quarter of a mile to windward, and when thus disturbed they go a 
long way before they halt. It is surprising how soon these sagacious animals are aware of the 
presence of a hunter in their domains. When one troop has been attacked, all the other ele- 
phants frequenting the district are aware of the fact within two or three days, when they all for- 
sake it, and migrate to distant parts, leaving the hunter no alternative but to inspan his wagons 
and remove to fresh ground. This constitutes one of the greatest difficulties which a skillful ele- 
phant-hunter encounters. Even in the most remote parts, which may be reckoned the head- 
quarters of the elephant, it is only occasionalljr, and with inconceivable toil and hardship, that 
the eye of the hunter is cheered by the sight of one. Owing to habits peculiar to himself; the 
elephant is more inaccessible, and much more rarely seen, than any other game quadruped, ex- 
cepting certain rare antilopes. They choose for their resort the most lonely and secluded depths 
of the forest, generally at a very great distance from the rivers and fountains at which they drink. 
In dry and warm weather they visit these waters nightly, but in cool and cloudy weather they 
drink only once every third or fourth day. About sundown the elephant leaves his distant mid- 
day haunt, and commences his march toward the fountain, which is probably from twelve to 
twenty miles distant. This he generally reaches between the hours of nine and midnight, when, 
having slaked his thirst and cooled his body by spouting large volumes of water over his back 
with his trunk, he resumes the path to his forest solitudes. Having reached a secluded spot, I 
have remarked that full-grown bulls lie down on their broadsides, about the hour of midnight, and 
sleep for a few hours. The spot which they usually select is an ant-hill, and they lie around it 
with their backs resting against it ; these hills, formed by the white ants, are from thirty to forty 
feet in diameter at their base. The mark of the under tusk is always deeply imprinted in the 
ground, proving that they lie upon their sides. I never remarked that females had thus lain down, 
and it is only in the more secluded districts that the bulls adopt this practice ; for I observed 
that in districts where the elephants were liable to frequent disturbance, they took repose stand- 
ing on their legs beneath some shady tree. Having slept, they then proceed to feed extensively. 
Spreading out from one another, and proceeding in a zigzag course, they smash and destroy all 
the finest trees in the forest which happen to lie in their course. The number of goodly trees 
which a herd of bull elephants will thus destroy is utterly incredible. They are extremely capri- 
cious, and on coming to a group of five or six trees they break down not unfrequently the whole 
of them, when, having perhaps only tasted one or two small branches, they pass on and continue 
their wanton work of destruction. I have repeatedly ridden through forests where the trees thus 
broken lay so thick across one another that it was almost impossible to ride through the district, 
and it is in situations such as these that attacking the elephant is attended with most danger. 
During the night they will feed in open plains and thinly-wooded districts, but as day dawns they 
retire to the densest covers within reach, which nine times in ten are composed of the impracti- 
cable wait-a-bit thorns, and here they remain drawn up in a compact herd during the heat of the 
day. In remote districts, however, and in cool weather, I have known herds to continue pastur- 
ing throughout the whole day. 
"The appearance of the wild elephant is inconceivably majestic and imposing. His gigantic 
height and colossal bulk, so greatly surpassing all other quadrupeds, combined with his sagacious 
disposition and peculiar habits, impart to him an interest in the eyes of the hunter which no other 
