204 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
sight of the elephants was truly grand, such a con- 
course of them being seldom witnessed. Their ex- 
treme docility, combined with the consciousness of 
their amazing strength, is no less remarkable than 
their sagacity. Some of them were splendidly ca- 
parisoned, especially that upon which the Mahratta 
chief himself rode. It was a noble animal, upwards 
of ten feet high, of a light colour, and very robust. 
The tusks were ornamented with gold and silver 
rings of considerable value, and the housings were 
of rich gold tissue. A large portion of the howdah 
was reported to be of rock crystal, which glittered in 
the sun, and multiplied its rays in ten thousand daz- 
zling reflections. 
The elephant of India is stated to be considerably 
less both in height and size than that of Africa. Tra- 
vellers have represented the latter as occasionally at- 
taining the height of sixteen feet, and Major Denham 
has sanctioned this statement by conjecturing that 
several enormous creatures which he saw during his 
travels in Africa, could not be less than sixteen feet 
high, although one which he actually had the oppor- 
tunity of measuring, only reached to the height of 
twelve feet six inches ; and this is in truth sufficiently 
prodigious, when its immense bulk is considered. 
The result of this admeasurement might have satisfied 
him that his judgment of the animals which he did 
not measure had more than probably added three 
feet to their actual height. A large Indian elephant, 
which seldom exceeds ten feet in stature, attains 
sometimes to the weight of seven thousand pounds. 
The animal represented in the opposite page belonged 
