80 
ON SKETCHING FROM NATURE. 
[Nature and Art, March 1, 18G7. 
the presence of particular trees and shrubs may 
be taken as indications of the presence of some 
particular beast. 
The scarcity of suitable food and of water would 
appear to be the only checks nature has set to the 
extension of the elephantine race. The animal’s 
vast weight, and the impenetrability of its hide, 
enable it to pass unresisted and unscathed through 
the desert thickets. It fearlessly breasts the 
strongest streams. Climbing on its knees or 
squatting dog-fashion on its hams, few slopes are 
so steep as to arrest its progress ; while, as Sir E. 
Tennent has remarked in reference to the Ceylon 
Elephant, “ no altitude appears too lofty or too 
chilly for it, if it but possesses the luxury of a 
boundless supply of water. 
Elephants are long in reaching maturity, and, 
like all such animals, probably attain a considerable 
age ; but on this point it is hopeless to seek for 
reliable information. The Ancients, we know, had 
wonderful tales of the longevity of these creatures. 
Philostratus asserted the Elephant lived 400 years, 
founding his belief on the story of one with a par- 
ticular mark, having been captured by Juba, king of 
Libya, 400 years after an engagement in which the 
animal had lied to Mount Atlas. Pliny gives them ’ 
an average life of from 200 to 300 years, on the 
authority of Aristotle ; and the Romans, in the time 
of Gordian, chose an Elephant for the symbol of 
eternity. Setting, however, these fables aside, there 
is satisfactory evidence that the Asiatic Elephant 
frequently attains a considerable age, nearly a 
century in a state of domestication, and there is no 
reason to believe the African variety to be shorter- 
lived. Blumenbach, indeed, has placed their pro- 
bable average age at 200 years. 
It is singular that, while in South-east Africa the 
carcases of Elephants which have died a natural 
death are never found, in the Gaboon country the 
supply of ivory is, according to M. du Chaillu, 
almost entirely procured from the bodies of animals 
which thus die in the forests. This leads us to the 
subject of the animals’ tusks, the “ Elephants’ 
teeth” of commerce. Not only are the tusks of 
the African variety generally of a far larger size 
than those of the Asiatic, but the ivory itself shows 
a remarkable difference of composition, containing 
a far larger proportion of gelatine, which, in many 
instances, renders it less fitted for manufacturing 
purposes. Some very fine ivory is, however, brought 
from a small tract of country situate, almost directly 
under the equator, on the Gaboon river. These 
tusks, which are rather small in size, are of a dark 
coffee-colour, in many cases almost black on their 
outside, the interior being what is termed techni- 
cally “ green ivory,” which, when once bleached, is 
supposed to retain its colour more perfectly than 
any other kind. The largest tusk in Mr. Gordon 
Cumming’s Museum weighed, as we have already 
stated, 173 lb. ; but one is mentioned by Cuvier as 
having weighed 350 lbs. ; and another, weighing 800 
lb. (i), is said to have been recently in the possession 
of an American house. This firm sent to the 
Exhibition of 1851 the largest piece of sawn ivory 
of which we have any record. It was 11 feet long 
and 1 foot broad. Above 1,000,000 lb. of ivory 
are stated to be consumed annually in England 
alone, the price varying, according to quality, from 
,£15 to £40 per cwt. More than half of this 
quantity is probably derived from Africa. 
It has been sometimes asserted that the pro- 
portion of brain in the African type is considerably 
less than in the Asiatic, and that the intelligence 
and fitness of the animal for domestication are less 
developed ; but there appears to be no sufficient 
ground for such a belief. Dr. Livingstone, in his 
recent work on the Zambesi, has pointed out a passage 
in Livy, which clearly proves that the Elephants 
used in the Punic wars were captured and trained by 
the Carthaginians, and were not brought from the 
East, as had been sometimes suggested with a 
certain show of probability. Medals, too, of the 
Roman Empire, which have come down to us, repre- 
senting the performances of the animals in the 
amphitheatres, so plainly depict the characteristics 
of the African type, as to leave no doubt of their 
origin. 
In Mr. F. Buckland’s Second Series of “ Curio- 
sities of Natural History ” is a passage which, 
although it refers to the Asiatic species, throws 
some light on the market-value of these animals at 
the present time. 
“An Elephant,” he tells us, “will fetch from £500 to 
£600. The young ones are preferred, as they require less 
food and are more manageable. There are no full-sized 
Elephants at present in England, and one would probably 
fetch at least £1,000. A dead Elephant will fetch from £20 
to £50, according to size, any day.” 
ON SKETCHING FROM NATURE. 
By Aabon Penley, Professor of Landscape Painting at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. 
No. VIII. CRUMMOCK WATER, CUMBERLAND. 
fjJULL instruction was given in last month’s 
Jl Nature and Art for the first washes of the 
Lake Scene, of which I now present the finished 
drawing. That it may be carried through 
without deviation from the first intention, I have 
worked upon the actual Chromo-lithograph itself, 
carefully attending (with another impression before 
me) to every detail of pencilling, so that those 
persons who undertake to copy it may be enabled 
to continue the colouring without confusion or 
difference. 
There is much softness and simplicity of treat- 
