128 
MAMMALIA. 
who were sometimes accompanied thus by Elephants that had been 
trained to carry torches.* 
One reads in the Stratagems of War, by Polyenus, that Julius 
Caesar, during his conquest of part of the Island of Great Britain, 
made use of an Elephant for crossing the Thames more rapidly. j 
Here are the details relating to this event given by Polyenus : — 
“ Caesar wanted to cross a great river, the opposite bank of !| 
which Cassivellaunus, one of the barbarous kings of Britain, was 
guarding with a large number of cavalry, a considerable body of I 
infantry, and a great many chariots of war. The Roman general, j 
seeing how difficult it would be to force the enemy from his 
position, caused an enormous Elephant, with iron trappings, and 
having on its back a tower containing archers and slingers, to ad- 
vance towards the enemy. This strange apparition struck with 
terror the inhabitants of Albion, who had never seen anything 
like it before ; their horses took fright and ran away with them, i 
and Caesar became master of the ford.” . 
We must here mention, with regard to the employment of 
Elephants in armies, that the Indian is more courageous than the 
African species. The Romans knew this, for in the battles in 
which they had only African to oppose to Indian Elephants, they 
took care to place them, not in front of the army, but behind the ; 
soldiers. This, according to Livy, the Romans did at the battle of 
Magnesium. 
The African Elephant has the head rounder and less broad 
above than the Asiatic Elephant. Its forehead has not the double 
lateral bump which is found on the forehead of the latter. Its 
ears are very much larger, and have their interior rims almost 
meeting over the occiput ; its tusk also is generally stronger. 
Various other peculiarities in the form of the bones and of the 
molar teeth still further distinguish the Elephant of Africa from 
that of Asia. 
The African Elephant is met with from the Cape of Good Hope 
to as far north as Hubia and Cape Verd. It consequently exists 
in Mozambique, in Abyssinia, in Guinea, and in Senegal. 
African Elephants live, like those of India, in troops more or 
* In all ancient Greek coins upon -which, an Elephant is represented it is always 
the Asiatic species ; and in all Roman coins invariably the African species. The 
Romans were familiar with both kinds. — Ed. 
